Chiefs: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Chiefs: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid – the 2019 Kansas City Chiefs are scary. Scary good. Most football savey fans and analysts will tell you that momentum is a real thing in the National Football League. In a game… and especially heading into the playoffs. Why is that important here? Because the Chiefs are on a 6-game winning streak. Yes, they’ve been on winning streaks before, but this time, it’s at the right time of the year.

Being Offensive About the Defense

and Defensive About the Offense

The Chiefs also haven’t had a defense come together at the same time they’ve had their offense come together in… about 5 decades. That defense has shown up big time in the last 6 games of the year allowing just 11.5 points per game over that span. In the meantime, the Chiefs offense was scoring at a 27.8 points per game pace over that 6 game winning streak. Anytime you can average more than 2 touchdowns better than your opponent over six games, you should probably be feared.

Pain is the Best Teacher

While the Chiefs have their dissenters, to get a more accurate view of the kind of team the Chiefs have right now, especially on offense, you must consider their progression. For instance, one positive of Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes being injured earlier this season is his ability to read his own offensive line now, and respond accordingly. Paul Pulley said it best: “Mahomes has learned, and learned rather quickly, to take better care of himself on the field.” That kind of maturation process makes Mahomes more dangerous than ever. 

The Past Does Not Equal the Future and…

That’s a Very Good Thing

While many think the Chiefs offense isn’t the same one that graced the field one year ago when they averaged 35.3 points per game to lead the NFL… it’s likely those same people who believe Andy Reid‘s quick-strike offense was putting the defense on the field with all too great a frequency in 2018, leading to the eventual and inevitable demise of the defense. This year however, the offense is averaging 28.2 points which get them the 6th best average in the league… but… this year’s offense also had 20 fewer plays from scrimmage. How can that be? How can the defense be this much improved while the offense is still placing them on the field at a greater rate? Simple. This defense that Steve Spagnuolo has created is just head and shoulders better in 2019 than the 2018 defense.

“The Kansas City Chiefs were

26th in Defensive DVOA in 2018

& ranked 14th in DVOA in 2019.”

While 14th is a step in the right direction, it isn’t the Top 10 overall ranking some were projecting for them this year but… yes, there’s a but… it doesn’t account for the recent progress and you’d be hard pressed to say the Chiefs don’t currently have a Top 10 defense… a threatening one at that: K.C. had the 7th best scoring defense in 2019.

No Longer Scary-Bad, This D is Scary-Good

Here’s are some stats that should earn the “scary” designation for the Chiefs 2019 squad:

• • Frank Clark had 8 sacks in just 11 games this year and is now fully healthy.
  • Chris Jones had 9 sacks this year in 13 games. First time Pro Bowler.
  • Terrell Suggs had 5 sacks in his first 6 games this year. Suggs has S.B. experience and some shock and awe left in his play. He still requires doubling and is 8th all-time in sacks.
  • There’s only one other team with more sacks than the Chiefs had in the regular season left in these playoffs: the 49ers.
  • The K.C. D had the 4th lowest passer rating allowed and only the Ravens are better out of all teams left in the playoffs.
  • The Chiefs D was 5th in the NFL in Interceptions in 2019 with 16. Minnesota and Green Bay are the only two teams left in the playoffs with more.
  • CB Charvarius Ward had 2 INTs, 10 PDs and is also superb vs the run with 64 solo tackles (7th out of 123 CBs ranked by PFF).
  • Safety Tyrann Mathieu had 4 INTs this year, 12 passes defensed and is All-Pro this year.

Tyrann Mathieu has had a major developmental impact on the Chiefs defense in terms of stats and leadership this season:

This Scary House is High on a Hill

Perhaps the scariest member of the Chiefs is Tyreek Hill. Hill provides the Chiefs offense so much more than another wideout for Mahomes to target. His speed is now legend and he forces teams to play wider and deeper than they normally might. So, he makes his teammates better, giving them more opportunities. If there is actually a player who opposing coordinators would admit who “frightens” them, it’s Tyreek Hill. At the very least, they know they must have a plan in place for dealing with him.

The 6-foot-5, 231 pound WR from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Mike Evans, was asked, “Who is your favorite receiver to watch?” and he said,

“Growing up it was Randy [Moss]… [but], that’s hard man, this is a receiver heavy league… but, my favorite to watch… is Tyreek Hill.”

DB Jason McCourty, of the New England Patriots said,

“When you’re in the league for awhile, there’s a lot of fast guys. You get out there and [there’s] Tyreek Hill, and okay, there’s a different level of fast.” 

Davante Adams, a wideout for the Green Bay Packers says of Hill,

“One of the more exciting players in the league. Obviously, the speed makes him dynamic but, when you actually focus in on what he’s doing, you look at his footwork and his releases, it’s happening really fast so you look at it like it’s just foot chatter, just like he’s pattering his feet… but the man really knows what he’s doing. He’s working on his game and he kind of takes it to the next level, and you can see it.”

I just can’t get enough of Hill-Lights:

CB Bradley Roby said it best, “[Hill has] once in a generation type speed. The thing about him is, he has that track speed but, he’s a football player too.” Hill was voted by his peers to be the 19th best player in the National Football League in the Summer of 2019. Not the 19th best WR… the 19th best player. Hill was the 5th best WR in that player’s poll.

Hill doesn’t let his teammates forget how fast he is either. Twice this year he has run RB Damien Williams down on long TD runs, when opposing DBs could not. Damien WIlliams has run a 4.40 – 40 yard dash and is one of the fastest RBs in the league… so that’s saying something.

Can’t You See Travis Kelce playing Buffalo Bill: 

and Repeating, “Put the Lotion in the Basket”

Travis Kelce is scary-good and you can be sure that Patrick Mahomes is glad he is. When Mahomes is under pressure and things aren’t going quite right, which is way too often, he always has tight end Travis Kelce ready to hit over the middle. Kelce is not just an insurance policy or a security blanket, he’s averaged 92 catches and 1,182 yards receiving per season, over the past four years. Chiefs fans have to be spoiled with Kelce providing Mahomes with “easy, easy money” (to quote a Dire Straits song, “Money For Nothing“). For some home-cooking perspective: HoF TE Tony Gonzalez’ four best seasons averaged out to 1,173 per year but, those seasons were spread out, nine years apart. So, the question is… is Kelce a dangerous weapon? Well, you wouldn’t want to be a Texans LB or Safety right now… or Romeo Crennel, Houston’s DC.

Pat Trick or Treat!

He’s David Copperfield or Willie Wonka

Maybe the most scary player on the Chiefs roster… or anyone else’s roster right now for that matter… is QB Patrick Mahomes. His injuries early in the 2019 season may have taken him out of the MVP discussions but you will likely see him mentioned in those conversations for the next ten-plus years. In 2018, Mahomes changed the way the quarterback position is played in the NFL. His left-handed passes, no-look passes, looking the Safety off, and side-armed tosses made every kid in this country who loves football, run out in the yard and try a few new twists on the old game.

Style of Play

While many will claim that Lamar Jackson has transformed the game this season like Mahomes did last year, there are questions about his ability to stay healthy as he continues to put his body in harm’s way by running it so much. It’s no coincidence that he has Robert Griffin III as his backup QB and teammate. Griffin was a favorite of mine when he came out the same year as Andrew Luck in 2012… but look what injuries have done to both of their careers. That’s another good reason to want the Chiefs to go for Offensive Linemen early and often in the next few drafts, so as to put a stellar OL together and protect PMII for the next decade … to infinity and beyond!.

Sandbaggin Pays Off, Finally

I believe that HC Andy Reid has been holding cards back and not playing them all season long with the idea that he’d use them once the playoffs rolled around. That’s right, he’s been telling other teams to, “Go Fish” because he hasn’t needed to play all his best cards… yet. Remember that stack of cards that Brett Veach referred to that Andy had been creating all his new plays on this past offseason? We’ll it’s unloading time and I think that unloading will begin this weekend.

Lastly…

“Hey, 98.6 (actually it’s 142.2)…

It’s Good to Have You Back Again”

The last reason this Chiefs team is so scary is… Arrowhead Stadium and the noise level Chiefs fans can provide. The temperature will be around 40 degrees for Sunday’s playoff game but Chiefs fans will raise that to over 140 degrees for Houston and not even the Texans are used to that kind of heat. If that’s not reason enough to believe the Chiefs will demolish the Houston Texans this coming weekend… remember, the last 6 Super Bowls have been won by teams that didn’t play in one of the Wildcard Games. Does that make these Chiefs even more scary? Not really but… it sure doesn’t hurt.

I predict a 34-17 Chiefs win.

Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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