KANSAS CITY, Mo. – It’s not in Alex Smith’s competitive nature to sit on the ball.
The quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs likes to run an up-tempo offense, wing the ball all over the field, tuck it under and scramble when things get hairy. But slow things down? Keep the other offense off the field? That’s a hard idea for him to accept.
It might be the Chiefs’ best shot at beating Denver on Sunday.
While the intoxicating matchup of Peyton Manning and the Broncos’ high-flying offense against Tamba Hali, Justin Houston and the Chiefs’ ferocious defense has garnered the spotlight this week, what happens when they’re off the field could prove just as critical to the outcome.
After all, the Broncos (8-1) can’t win if they can’t score, and they can’t score if Manning and his trusty lieutenants are standing on the sideline.
“I’ve heard that strategy before, keep-away, but that’s certainly not something we’re even talking about or focusing on at all,” Smith said. “We have to go out there and execute. I think if you go out there and play keep-away, it’s hard for good things to happen.”
Then again, it’s easy to keep bad things from happening, too.
Smith has earned a reputation for being a “game manager,” and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. He may not throw for 300 yards and three touchdowns like Manning, but he’s also not prone to fumbles and interceptions – the kind of egregious mistakes that can cost a team a win.
That’s the biggest reason why he’s 28-5-1 as a starter since 2011, second to Manning (21-4) among active quarterbacks who have made at least 20 starts over the last three seasons.
“He’s done a nice job of landing on his feet there,” said Broncos defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, who also is serving as interim coach while John Fox is recovering from heart surgery.
“We’re getting ourselves prepared for him,” Del Rio said. “He can throw it; he can run it. He can do a lot of different things. He brings a lot of different elements.”
Even if he’s unwilling to admit it, one of Smith’s best attributes simply is keeping the Chiefs’ offense on the field. They are fifth in the NFL in time of possession – despite ranking in the bottom half in most other categories – a big reason why their defense is so successful. They get to spend most of Sunday watching from the sideline.
Chiefs’ offensive coordinator Doug Pederson acknowledged Thursday that the Chiefs (9-0) prefer to grind games away. The fact that running back Jamaal Charles leads the AFC in rushing not only is a testament to that fact but underlies the reasons for it.
Might as well lean on your best player, right?
As much as Smith might dislike it, though, Pederson also admitted that the Chiefs have a better chance of beating the Broncos if they can maintain control of the ball. Denver is averaging an absurd 487.7 yards and 41.2 points per game, both easily the best in the NFL.
“You know what’s on the other side of the ball, and any time you have guys like Peyton or Tom Brady that can score, you know you have to execute your offense,” Pederson said.
“You can’t really worry about, ‘We have to keep the ball for x-amount of minutes or x-amount of plays,’ because you still have to score. But it comes down to execution.”
The Chiefs haven’t necessarily executed well the last few weeks.
Their only two touchdowns in a win over Buffalo before their bye came on Hali’s short fumble return and Sean Smith’s pick-six. In fact, the Kansas City offense hasn’t reached the endzone since late in the second quarter of a win over Cleveland on Oct. 27.
“We have to score touchdowns,” Pederson said. “That’s just an obvious thing.”
The Denver defense has shown a propensity for giving them up, too.
The Broncos are among the league’s bottom third in total yards, passing yards, points – really, just about every significant statistic. Part of that is the effectiveness of their offense, which often puts the defense back on the field quickly, but part of it is futility.
“It’s a challenge to be the best defense out there on the field, and that’s something that we are definitely going to do,” Broncos linebacker Wesley Woodyard. “We’re going to go out there and play as hard as we can try to be the best defense out there.”
Chiefs fans trade wedding rings for tickets
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A suburban Kansas City woman who posted a Craigslist advertisement offering to swap her wedding ring set for tickets to the Broncos-Chiefs game found a buyer – a two-decade season-ticket holder who said he now can offer a more important deal to his fiancee.
The Overland Park, Kan., woman posted the ad last week seeking tickets for the Dec. 1 game at Arrowhead Stadium. Some criticized her for lacking sentiment in giving up rings for tickets, but she has clarified they were from a previous marriage.
On Thursday, the woman, who asked to remain anonymous, sent an email to local media saying she had made the transaction.
“It’s official! I have tickets to the game!!!” the woman said. “We met at a jewelry store so they could verify the ring was real and matched the appraisal I had provided him.”
She was happy with the deal: Four tickets to the Broncos game and two tickets to the Nov. 24 Chargers game, all in Section 123 near the endzone.
The buyer, 49-year-old Kansas City resident Rusty Jones, said he first learned of the ring offer last week through a story in The Kansas City Star and contacted the seller.
A season ticket holder since 1993, Jones said he and his girlfriend had started talking about engagement rings a month ago. He had tickets to offer, though not the club-level seats the woman was seeking.
Jones said the woman lost his contact information and ended up reposting the Craigslist ad. He reached out again and made a deal.
The rings were appraised at $2,800.
The seller wanted to finish the trade in time for her husband’s 40th birthday earlier this week, but the family didn’t get to celebrate because her daughter had to go to the emergency room with a migraine.
“I think I’ll put the tickets in a card and get some balloons and dinner and celebrate his birthday tonight so he feels like he actually had one,” she wrote. “He was a little disappointed in how his day turned out so it’s time to make it up to him!”
