When Andy Reid arrived in Kansas City and was putting together his coaching staff, Dave Toub was one of the biggest names he landed. Toub had established himself as one of the league's top special teams coaches during his time with the Chicago Bears. It was more of the same for the early part of his Chiefs tenure as well. Toub's specialists were always good to great, and his coverage units were always reliable. Unfortunately, in recent years, missed kicks and an endless stream of penalties have tarnished KC's special teams reputation.
The Chiefs are in the midst of what is the most challenging season of the Andy Reid/Patrick Mahomes era. They are now 0–5 in one-score games this season. You know what you can't afford to have in one-score games: missed field goals, extra points, and costly special teams penalties. The Chiefs now find themselves in a position where they may need to go 6–1 down the stretch in order to secure a playoff spot. To pull that off, they have to be able to rely on their special teams, not overcome them.
Where are the Chiefs special teams struggling?
----------------------------------------------
The Chiefs have had two main issues this season. First, Harrison Butker has struggled with extra points. He's a solid 16–19 on field goals. That would be fine if that was it, but somehow Butker has missed more extra points than field goals this season. He has already missed four extra points. Butker is tied for 34th in the NFL in extra point percentage. In a league of 32 teams, that's not great. The Chiefs need to be able to rely on their kicker if they want to beat an 8–2 Colts team in what will likely be a very close game.
The other major issue is the special teams penalties. While fans know that statistically the Chiefs haven't actually had a penalty on _every_ single special teams return, it certainly feels that way. When you have an offense that is struggling to score consistently in close games, you can't afford to consistently start drives backed up because of a special teams penalty.
If Dave Toub is a good special teams coach, he should at least be able to get his unit to stop making the same completely preventable penalties again and again. Kickers can sometimes get in their own heads, and while you'd like to think a special teams coach could help them get it fixed, being a kicker's psychologist seems like it would be a lot harder than just coaching up your return teams to not hold or block guys in the back.
The Chiefs are on the verge of letting their season slip away from them. They need to do everything in their power to pull out a win on Sunday against one of the best teams in the AFC and avoid [dropping below .500 this late in the season](https://arrowheadaddict.com/chiefs-are-at-risk-of-falling-to-a-rare-place-on-sunday-against-the-colts-01kaech7pv36) for the first time in the Mahomes era. Their offense has to score points. Their defense must slow down MVP candidate Jonathan Taylor and the Colts' offense, [whose quarterback is nursing an injury](https://arrowheadaddict.com/colts-quietly-dealing-with-daniel-jones-issue-before-chiefs-showdown-01kahmpekm9v). Even if those things happen, they may still need their special teams to come through to win the game. This season, that hasn't always been a safe bet, but it's time for Dave Toub to get his unit to step up.