KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After eight games in the 2014 season, no Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver has broken the plain of the end zone. That means 67 catches among six wide receivers with no touchdowns.

In perspective, more than 100 wide receivers caught a touchdown pass this season in the NFL. Just none of them plays for Kansas City.

Still, the Chiefs were on the winning road in recent weeks, despite the very little production at wide receiver.

“It’s strange that things have happened that way for us,” offensive coordinator Doug Pederson said. “I think a part of it is our ability to run the football, particularly in the second half (of games.) The other thing is, if you do throw it short you expect your guys to break tackles and make longer runs. We just have to continue to use the formula that’s been working for us and continue to grow off of that.”

There are contributions that Dwayne Bowe, Junior Hemingway and others make in the running game with blocking downfield. Hemingway and Frankie Hammond have been contributors on special teams. But wide receivers are paid to make catches, specifically catches that result with the ball in their hands and in the end zone.

“Yeah, I know,” coach Andy Reid said. “Donovan (McNabb) was hammering me on that when he was here (last week.) I didn’t even think about it until he mentioned it. It doesn’t really bother me, as long as we’re getting in and getting touchdowns.”

The question remains, why have the receivers been shut out of the end zone?

The answers are basic football:

–1. The wide receiver position has the least amount of talent of any position on the Chiefs roster, and …

–2. Because of inconsistent pass protection, throwing the ball deep is seldom part of the offensive game plan. Those are the plays most often targeted to wide receivers.

“We do a few of those, possession throws,” Reid said. “The short, intermediate game, I think we do that halfway decent. It ties in with some of the run-game part that we’re doing, too.”

The Chiefs are not rich when it comes to receivers. They had five available last Sunday against the New York Jets and will likely carry only five with their trip this Sunday to Buffalo.

Bowe and Jenkins are first-round selections, but Jenkins has shown in his brief career that he was significantly over-drafted by San Francisco in 2011. Hemingway is a seventh-round draft choice. Hammond and Wilson were not drafted coming out of college. Combine the NFL experience of the other four receivers available this week and it totals seven seasons, or one year short of Bowe’s eight seasons. Donnie Avery has been off the field after a sports hernia injury, but he had just 14 catches in the season’s first four games.

In eight games, quarterback Alex Smith has thrown 246 passes. Only 11 of those throws went 20 yards or more in the air. It has been a lot of dink and a lot of dunk in the K.C. passing game

Do the Chiefs not throw downfield because they don’t have the receiving talent that can create separation and produce catches, yards and touchdowns? Or do they not throw deep because they don’t have the quarterback that can deliver the long-distance ball? Or is the reason due to not being able to count on the type of pass protection needed for throwing the long ball?

Smith has more than enough power in his right shoulder to heave the ball 20 yards or more. He did that last year, throwing 45 passes for more than 20 yards in the air during 15 starts with 14 completions that produced 499 yards and five touchdowns.

In the 2011 season when he started all 16 games for the 49ers, Smith went downfield on 51 throws, completing 21 for 723 yards and six scores.

With the possible exception of a healthy Avery, the Chiefs do not have receivers that will run past defensive backs. Even if they did, whether Smith would have time to find them is another matter.

The Chiefs have trended toward more three- and five-step drops this year rather than the usual seven-step drops. With shaky pass protection, a steady diet of seven-step drops creates a target spot for the pass rush.

“Obviously, the ball is out quick and everything that you do in the passing game whether it is three, five or seven steps should come off a vertical step as if you’re running a go route or a deep route,” Pederson said. “We use a multitude of formations, motions and shifts to sort of disguise our three-step passing game and that’s been helpful for us as well.”

Touchdowns for the wide receivers? They will come, say the Chiefs.

“We’ll get one, and that will lead to another,” Smith said. “We keep winning, it will come.”

NOTES: The Chiefs announced Wednesday they agreed to terms on a contract extension with FB Anthony Sherman. Details were not announced, but the contract adds three years and $7 million in incentives.