Smith a No-Go in AFC Wild Card Fight Against Chargers

Chiefs QB Alex Smith had very little to cheer about on Friday
(Goggle Images)

Alex Smith will not start the game Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium when his Kansas City Chiefs take on their division rivals San Diego Chargers for the final playoff spot in the AFC. News broke late Friday morning that Smith was battling a lacerated spleen and that Chase Daniel would take Smith's place under center. This might be the final nail in the coffin for a Chiefs team that looked unstoppable just one month ago.

Kansas City's head athletic trainer, Rick Burkholder, told the media Friday morning that Smith took a shot to the abdomen in the third quarter, which caused a small laceration in his spleen. The injury will not require surgery, but Smith will need about six weeks to fully heal. So even in the Chiefs win Sunday and make the playoffs, advancing to the Super Bowl just got much more difficult.

As Yogi Berra says, "it ain't over till its over." But without Smith, one of the more underrated quarterbacks in the league, calling plays for his team, the Chiefs are going to have to battle to beat a very hot Chargers team.

The formula for the Chargers to nab a playoff berth is simple: beat the Chiefs in Kansas City. However, for the Chiefs to make the playoffs for the second year in a row, things get a little more messy. Yes, they must beat San Diego at home, a team fresh off rallying from behind to beat the 49ers last Saturday night. But the Ravens must also lose and the Texans must lose or tie for the Chiefs to punch their ticket.

The Ravens and Texans are also impacted by Smith's injury. Baltimore needs to win against the Browns Sunday, in addition to a Kansas City loss to make the playoffs. Houston needs to beat Jacksonville and they need the Ravens and Chiefs to lose to make it in.
 

Arrowhead Stadium will be the sight of Sunday's AFC West showdown
(Google Images)

Smith's is the second serious injury for the Chiefs this year. Eric Berry was diagnosed with  Hodgkin lymphoma  few weeks ago. Because the team caught the disease when they did, they probably saved Berry's life. Now Smith is in that same boat. Had the Chiefs played Smith on Sunday and had he taken another big hit, the former No. 1 overall pick said his spleen could have ruptured, leading to "emergency surgery or bleeding out. Some pretty scary endings." 

However, despite his absence on the field, Smith still has faith the Chiefs will be victorious Sunday. He will be on the sidelines Sunday to help Daniel and his team. "Getting ready to go win a game," he told reporters Friday. To see Burkholder and Smith talk more about this latest development for their team, click here.

Daniel has one previous start, also against the Chargers in Week 16 last year. The backup completed 25 of 38 passes for 248 yards and one touchdown. The Chiefs would lose that game 27-24. But last year's game was played in San Diego. This year, the Chargers will have to come to Arrowhead, a marked advantage for a Kansas City team looking for any amount of help they can get. The loudest stadium in the world, Arrowhead will be filled with the loudest fans in football Sunday. Chiefs fans saw their team advance to the post season last year they will no doubt be screaming and spurring their team to their second consecutive playoff appearance.

Yes, the odds are against the Chiefs and any realistic football fan can see that everything this weekend is coming up Chargers. But given the environment Philip Rivers must play in, given that Jamal Charles is healthy and given that Daniel isn't really that bad of a substitute (can you say Johnny Football?), the Chiefs might actually be able to put up a fight and make Sunday's matchup a very exciting football game.

This has been a big year for upsets and there is every reason to think that the Chiefs can still pull off another KC Masterpiece without their starting QB.