Alright, there was not 5 bad things in that game against the Chiefs so this week we're getting rid of the other 4 bad things and focusing on one. That one thing is Ryan Mathews' inability to pick up the blitz.
Maybe I'm over-simplifying things a bit, but I look at Ryan Mathews and see an intelligent kid. He's been in this offensive system since August. Shouldn't he be better than terrible at picking up blitzes by now?
Norv is part of the problem here too. He knows his margin for error right now is non-existent, so he keeps Mathews on the shortest leash imaginable. Drop a pass? Sit for a quarter. Miss a block? Miss a game.
Either way, at this point in the season (especially with all of the "rest" he's gotten) I was expecting Mathews to be "getting it" and turning into the dominating RB that he seems to have the potential to become. Instead, he's still making mistakes and still looks uncomfortable when he's doing anything besides running with the ball in his hands. If there's one thing that can make your offense predictable, it's bringing in a running back that the defense knows cannot catch or block.