Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. It’s a quote made famous by Mike Tyson, and it applies in all aspects of life.
Especially football.
Imagine you’re standing in your backyard playing catch with your 7-year-old son. It’s easy to throw a pass 10 yards away. No pressure, right? But what if there’s someone in front of your child? Suddenly the throw becomes more difficult. Now imagine a 290-pound grown man sprinting toward you at full speed as you’re attempting to make the throw.
Yeah,
good luck.
That’s the life of an NFL quarterback. Every. Single. Week. It sounds miserable. It’s no wonder fewer than 20 people in the world can do this job at a high level at any given time.
Applying that pressure on opposing quarterbacks is the goal of every defensive coordinator in the league. Don’t let the opposing quarterback get comfortable. Get him off his spot. Throw him off of his rhythm. We hear this every single week. It’s easier said than done.
But when you do it, it’s special. It’s what made the Seattle Seahawks’ defense stand out a year ago. It felt like a new player was getting after the quarterback on every single play. That defensive line came at opposing offenses in waves. It was constant, relentless pressure.
It’s the kind of thing every team in the league hopes to replicate. The Kansas City Chiefs are no different.
After the first week of the season, it felt like Kansas City might be on its way to a better year in that regard. The defensive line made Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix look uncomfortable from the very first snap. Steve Spagnuolo was in his bag. The results were hard to argue.
Chiefs defenders had three sacks and five quarterback hits in that season-opener against Nix and the Broncos. This same defense has zero sacks and five quarterback hits over the past two weeks… combined.
Wait, what? Why? How? Didn’t this team just spend millions on a new nose tackle and multiple top-50 selections on defensive linemen? And aren’t they spending $50 million against the cap on two other defensive linemen?
Yupp. They are. The results should be better. But they aren’t. Not yet, at least.
What’s gone wrong? Let’s dive into the numbers, shall we?
*Stats courtesy of Dynatize & Pro Football Reference
So, yeah, it’s a bit all over the place. The Chiefs blitzed the Broncos, and Denver responded by getting the ball out of Nix’s hands as quickly as possible. It resulted in a ton of dump-offs and a lower pressure rate, but the Chiefs’ blitzes paid off with a few sacks.
The blitz rate dropped over the past couple of weeks. The pressure rate did increase ever so slightly, but the Chiefs’ ability to finish plays in the backfield all but disappeared.
It’s strange. It’s hard to explain. It needs to change.
This is a good week to get things back on track. Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins is the first true pocket passer the Chiefs have faced all season. He’s been sacked five times and hit 10 times over the past two weeks against the New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Chargers, and he could be without starting right guard Jackson Powers-Johnson this week. Powers-Johnson has missed practice each of the past two days with a groin issue. His replacement would seem to be Caleb Rogers, a player with six career starts.
That sound you hear is defensive tackles Chris Jones and Peter Woods licking their chops.
This was already a relatively advantageous matchup for the Chiefs’ defensive line, and it looks like it’s getting better. Brandon Thorn of Establish The Run ranked the Chiefs’ defensive line vs. the Raiders’ offensive line as the fifth-biggest mismatch in the league this week. He has the Raiders rated as the 21st “best” offensive line in the league. The Chiefs rate as the fifth-best defensive line.
That’s a lot of faith in a group that hasn’t produced. There are reasons why smart individuals like Thron still have so much belief in a group that’s failed to produce a sack over the past two weeks. It’s entirely possible the Chiefs’ defensive game plan focused on stopping the run against the Indianapolis Colts. At times, it looked like they played more of a contain rush against quarterback Malik Willis to force him to win from the pocket. It’s also possible safety Chamarri Conner’s absence has forced Steve Spagnuolo to run a more vanilla game plan on the back end of the defense in recent weeks. Throw in a nagging calf injury for Jones, and you’ve got a formula for limited pass-rush production.
That’s all fine and dandy. But eventually this unit has to start putting pressure on the opposing quarterback again. This would be a good week for it to start.
