The Kansas City Chiefs lost their first game of the season in Week 7, 20-3, to the Seattle Seahawks.
Let’s look at one thing that went well and two things that didn’t from the game:
The Good
Mansoor Delane in a trail position
The Chiefs had few bright spots on offense, defense, or special teams. However, I do think rookie cornerback Mansoor Delane deserves recognition for playing a very good game overall.
Going back to his film at LSU, one of Delane’s best skills is his ability to win in trail position. Delane isn’t often behind a play, but that
can happen occasionally as a cornerback, depending on your leverage.
The Chiefs are in a Cover 1 bracket here, bracketing wide receiver Jaxon-Smith Ngijba with a single-high safety. Delane is in outside leverage, with help over the middle. Delane gets about a step behind the wide receiver, but he closes that space and gets his arm in the way to break up the pass. Delane’s recovery speed is great, and he does a great job poking the ball out with late hands.
The Chiefs send a blitz this time with a Cover 2 man coverage call behind it, putting Delane in inside leverage. He recognizes that Smith-Njigba is trying to get Delane to shift outside so he can get inside positioning on the slant, but Delane sits all over it and boxes Smith-Njigba out of getting inside positioning.
Delane covered Smith-Njigba on both his go routes along the sideline, but truthfully, that wasn’t bad coverage. Smith-Njigba is the best receiver in the NFL, and Delane had to cover him one-on-one on a two-way go. Most guys get beat there. Because Smith-Njigba is so good in the middle of the field, Delane has to worry about not letting Smith-Njigba cross his face, which lets him get a step downfield. Delane is still in fine position and makes an attempt to knock the ball out; the throws and catches are just better. You’ll take this coverage every time.
The Bad
L’Jarius Sneed playing man coverage in the slot
L’Jarius Sneed was resigned this offseason to provide cornerback depth, but with the Chiefs not knowing who to start in the slot, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo elected to go with the veteran Sneed.
Sneed started his career in the slot, and his physicality and blitzing make him well-suited to that position. Sneed played great from the slot against the Denver Broncos in Week 1, but since then, he’s been a total liability in coverage. Sneed’s snaps have also been slowly reduced, with only 14 against Seattle and almost none after halftime.
Despite only playing 14 snaps, Sneed’s play hurt the Chiefs. At this stage of his career, he can’t cover in man-to-man anymore, and Seattle knew it. The veteran allowed 83 yards over five receptions in the first half alone, according to Sumer Sports. Farzin Vousoughian on X noted that Sneed has also allowed the most receptions in the NFL this season and the fourth-most receiving yards (378).
The Chiefs are running a Cover 2 man coverage again, where Sneed bluffs the blitz and drops to coverage. Sneed has inside positioning on Smith-Njigba, so a slant shouldn’t be able to cross his face. But Sneed’s footwork and change of direction are much slower than they used to be, leaving him flat-footed when Smith-Njigba runs inside. He has no chance of recovering, and this turns into a first down.
Another play where Sneed is slow to click and close on a slant, and the receiver easily crosses his face. It was a theme in the loss, especially on third down; site manager Ron Kopp Jr. a few more plays where Sneed was beat earlier this week.
Sneed can’t play in the slot anymore. If he’s going to play, he has to play outside, where he has more chances to defend vertical routes. Move Delane to the slot more if necessary. I would play Chris Rolland-Wallace more, and either play Jaden Hicks in Dime over Sneed or kick Delane inside and Sneed to the boundary.
The Chiefs’ pass rush
The most frustrating part of this game was that the Chiefs pass rush did nothing against a shaky Seattle offensive line. The Chiefs finished with zero sacks and only one player hitting Darnold (defensive end George Karlaftis had two quarterback hits, per Pro Football Reference).
Watching the game back, the thing that was noticeable was that the Chiefs got no interior pressure in this game. Sam Darnold never had to throw in muddy pockets. He could step up freely to avoid R Mason Thomas and George Karlaftis off the edge.
The stats back this up. Chris Jones finished this game with zero pressures. Peter Woods had zero pressures. Khyris Tonga had one and Felix Anudike-Uzomah had two to lead their interior pass rush. The 250 lb edge player.
The issue is, this has been the case all year. Jones has 13 pressures in six games. That’s a low amount for a player like Jones. Jones only had 18 in six games to start last year and then turned it on when the season was desperate. But he hasn’t looked great this year. It looks harder for him to get upfield and turn the quick corner that he used to be great at.
Woods has also brought no juice as a pass rusher this year. He has two pressures all year and has a 2.3% pressure rate. The Chiefs put Anudike-Uzomah on the field on third downs over Woods because Woods has struggled to get any pressure.
The issue with this is the Chiefs defensive ends aren’t big enough to rush inside. Anudike-Uzomah is 250 lbs and struggles to move guards backwards. Ashton Gillotte got chances to do that in this game and it didn’t look great. You want Thomas and Karlaftis running around the edge because they are good at that. But if there isn’t any interior pressure, you allow quarterbacks to freely step into the pocket and hit receivers. The Chiefs need their defensive tackles to play better for this to be a great defense.
