AFC West v K.C. Chiefs Head-to-Head: The Offensive Line – Part III

 

 

 

AFC West v K.C. Chiefs Head-to-Head:

The Offensive Line – PART III ・ David Bell

 

 

Part I: an inventory of the Kansas City Chiefs Offensive Line, found here.

Part II: an analysis of the Chiefs OL vs. the LA Chargers, found here.

 

PART III– a look at the Chiefs OL vs. the Raiders and the Broncos and a 2018 prognostication can be found at the end.

 

First, Look at the Oakland Raiders Defense

Defensive End Khalil Mack is perhaps their most well known player on the front line he had 78 Tackles and 10.5 sacks plus one fumble recovery. The OLB opposite Mack was Bruce Irvin who had 8 sacks on the season. The Raiders run a base 4-3 Defense but they did switch up to looks they called the Under Tackle or Over tackle.

 

 

 

October 19th 2017: Chiefs lose

Chiefs, 30 – Raiders, 31

On October 8th, both LDT and Mitch Morse were injured and out the next two games. The next game on Thursday, October 15th was a game lost to the Steelers, 13-19, followed by this second game, 4 days later, also a loss, to the Raiders. Fulton substituted for Mitch Morse and Cam Erving for LDT.

 

 

 

The Chiefs almost pulled off a road victory losing 30-31, after opening 5-0. Alex Smith put together his 3rd 300-yard passing game of the 2017 season going 25 of 36, 342 yards, 3 TD, 0 INTs. Kareem Hunt had 87 yards rushing and a total of 117 yards overall and Ty Hill had 8 catches and 1 TD, a 50 yard play, and totaled 125 yards receiving. Alex Smith was sacked only one time, losing 11 yards on the play and this game was well played by the offense, with above average offensive line play. The OL down side? The Chiefs were penalized 8 times for 108 yards a continuing stumbling block that they can’t seem to get over. In this game, only Eric Fisher committed a 10-yard foul for Holding. However, only one penalty was on the offensive side of the ball, that on 1 flag being on Eric Fisher. The rest of the penalties were all on defense including the infamous phantom penalty.

 

 

 

The Chiefs scored 30 points on the road and there were at least 2 penalties that cost the Chiefs 2 scores. But that is the nature of the game. This is not to say that the offense appeared in sync on every possession but the situation was a lot better than the previous 2 games. The Chiefs won the time of possession battle and had 62 snaps on the offense side of the ball. Alex Smith’s comment after the game are apropos: “I hate seeing all the flags at the end….That’s the one thing –– you want to let your guys play and you don’t want the refs involved, as much as possible.”

 

 

 

This was the Chief’s only loss of the season to an AFC West opponent. However, after the 2-game skid, the Chiefs had a win over the Broncos at home… and then lost the next four games in a row, which made for an awful November.

 

December 10th 2017: Chiefs win at home

Chiefs, 26 – Raiders, 15

By the time the second game was played, Matt Nagy had implemented the simplified blocking scheme and the Chiefs had regained the lead in the division. Playing at home was also an advantage. This game was not as much of a contest as the score seems to indicate. The defense held the Raiders under 17 (my magic number) and this was accomplished without Marcus Peters (suspended by Reid for the game). Since this is a look at the offense, I’ll not dwell on the defense except to note they played well and forced 3 Raiders turnovers.

 

 

There were some oddities in this contest: For example, Alex Smith threw for 268 yards, 24 of 34 but had no aerial TD’s. Smith did throw an interception. Kareem Hunt had 116 yards rushing and 1 rushing TD’s. Charcandrick West scored the other TD on the ground. Tyreek Hill had 75 yards, but no TD’s. In the red zone? The Chiefs were 2-of-4. The offense had an extremely efficient 23 first downs, 10 of them on the ground, thus consuming clock time. Through the air, the Chiefs had 12 first downs and gained one on a penalty. This game seemed to be an illustration of the simplification of blocking for the interior of the offensive line.

 

The Chiefs offensive line owned the Raiders. The ground game pounded them for 165 yards. They didn’t have a big break out run but moved the chains sequence after sequence. The offense was more efficient in getting in sync and seemed to flow with Nagy’s play-calling. Penalties hurt them a bit, a problem the Chiefs had all season long.

 

 

 

Raiders QB Derek Carr threw for 211 yards, 1 TD, Jared Cook had 1 receiving TD but, WR Michael Crabtree had none. Lynch? He was held to 69 yards on the ground and didn’t score. In the Red Zone? The Raiders did not score from the Red Zone nor did they get inside it. Their scores were from beyond the zone. The Chiefs D intercepted Carr twice, both meaningful turnovers and at the same time, they had a fumble recovery.

 

The Chiefs offense tallied 408 total yards and dominated the Time of Possession (36:40 to 23:20) game with 71 snaps on offense to the Raiders 55. Both teams were flagged 7 times, the Chiefs for 69 yards.

 

 

The offensive line blocking was good for both the ground and aerial games, but Alex Smith was sacked 4 times thus revealing where the line play was weak. This probably illustrates that sacks are not the crucial part of rushing the passer — but that combined with pressures and hits is how it should be examined. Alex Smith’s holding the ball in one case, and in another making the wrong move in the pocket, were part of the reason two of the sacks occurred, maybe three. The Offensive line gave plenty of protection to Alex Smith otherwise and Smith observed after the game: ”All three phases were playing off each other, all three playing good team football.”

 

 

The Denver Bronco’s Defense

 

The Broncos mount a 3-4 Defense and show hybrids off of this but, their base 3-4 looks like this:

 

 

 

 

October 30th 2017: Broncos at Chiefs win

Chiefs, 29 – Broncos, 19

The Chiefs had lost two in a row and interrupted this by winning versus the Broncos. To set the stage: Oct 8th was a week where the Chiefs lost Mitch Morse and LDT to injury and they had lost two games in a row. Fortunately, this game was at home.

 

Alex Smith had 202 aerial yards, 1 TD, and Kareem Hunt had 67 yards and no TD’s. TE Travis Kelce had an exceptional game with 133 yards receiving and 1 TD while WR Tyreek Hill was not really a contributor at all and this many have been playcalling but, Hill was covered front and behind being targeted only once. Meanwhile, the Chiefs main advantage in this game may have been that Trevor Siemian was the opposing QB who had 3 INTs. The Chiefs held him to 198 yards and 1 TD. RB CJ Anderson had 69 rushing yards. The offensive line did not play well but the Broncos weren’t capable of totally preventing the Chiefs from moving the ball.

 

 

 

 

In the first half, and I recall this well, Jamaal Charles had a carry and the ball was knocked loose and the Chiefs recover the ball deep in Denver territory and converted this to a TD by the defense. I think this was really the curtain call for Charles time in Denver. Next, the Chiefs scored a TD on a throw to Kelce and exited the first quarter leading 14-0. The Broncos scored first in the 2nd quarter with a FG but this was matched by the Chiefs who scored a FG of their own. In the second half the Chiefs scored a FG first which was countered by the Bronco’s scoring 10 points.

 

The Chiefs offense stalled the rest of the quarter and here the failure to move the chains was a concise quarter of the ineffectiveness for the Chiefs offensive line. KC led 20-to-13 as the 4th quarter opened. The offense then stalled in the Red Zone 3 times and had to settle for 9 Butker points. Denver continued with inept offense also and scored 1 additional TD but failed on a 2-point attempt.

 

The home game and the defense saved the Chiefs bacon. The offense blocking bordered on terrible in this game and stalled drives due to missed blocking assignments and failing to hold the Denver pass rush. LDT was back but Morse was out, Fulton substituting.

 

 

 

This game was what began to make clear to Matt Nagy that he had major problems with the offensive line. They had lost two games, albeit both in a short week. It wasn’t for 3 more games before he altered the blocking scheme in games.

 

Note: In the 4th consecutive loss, the offensive line blocked well. I suspect that they had made the change and practiced it the preceding week but did not implement it until the game against Jets, another game the Chiefs should have won but the offensive line was not the culprit and the problem was a continued exposure of the defense.

 

 

Completing the Head-to-Head Comparison

and Prognostication for 2018

I must admit that I am not satisfied with the Chiefs Front Five. On the other hand, I do not see them as a declining group, rather a group, which if health, will improve their capability. They do have experienced depth. They do not have an experienced back up center. It had been a wish of mine that Brett Veach bring in an experienced starter for Left guard. That hasn’t happened so it will be at the very least, a competition to determine a left guard starter among Witzmann, Ehinger and Erving. As we approach the draft, if there is a pick on the offensive side of the ball, I would hope it would be to obtain a L-OG.

 

My ultimate view is that the Chiefs offensive line improves performance by 5 to 10%. Much of that will be due to gained experience and depth, which, when compared to our AFC West opponents, is an asset.

 

Let’s Look at the Arch Rival Raiders in 2018

New Head Coach Jon Gruden hired 4-3 Defensive Coordinator Paul Guenther (pictured at left) away from the Bengals. Of course they have not practiced together yet, they have not yet added draft picks to the mix. Added to that? Kahlil Mack is a hold-out for OTA’s though I cannot imagine the Raiders not making this work with a long term contract. Mack is in his contract 5th year, as a 1st round pick.

 

A view looking forward to the Broncos

At this point, I see again a match-up wash. The Broncos look to be a team continuing the rebuild on the fly. I am sure they are going to add a new QB to the mix. Thus far they have not done anything to improve their front 3  so again, including the advantage of having a mobile QB, the Chiefs OL front five should match well against the Broncos DL front 3.

 

The Chiefs Front Five Versus the Chargers

Alex Smith seemed to have the upper hand every time these two teams met. The Chiefs front five matched well against the Chargers front but suffered with sacks. Otherwise, the offensive line played well. Alex Smith was capable of movement to avoid sacks. My view of Patrick Mahomes is that he will be an improvement in this regard. I cannot see a 2018 front five not having the same or improved performance against the Chargers front.

 

 

 

David Bell – ArrowheadOne

 

 

 

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