Chiefs: Boulevards & St. Bernard’s, Unplayed Cards & Garbage Yards

Chiefs: Boulevards & St. Bernard’s, Unplayed Cards & Garbage Yards – These hot topics are all related to the Chiefs 2019 Defense. First, we should consider the idea that the loss of the last 7:32 of the game because of so-called “technical difficulties” has possibly obscured our vision, at least a little, about what happened in this game. Also, I say, “so-called” because there are those out there that believe the technical difficulties weren’t technical difficulties at all and it was really just some’s fiendish plot to remove the Chiefs great offense from the view of those watching across the league. Oh. Whatever.

Conspiracy Bards

The internet has made conspiracy theories a modern Hindenburg… before it exploded into a fiery inferno. The German passenger airship dirigible was the biggest worldwide news story of 1936 even before it exploded in 1937 and if your team has been obscured in AFC quicksand for two generations, a conspiracy theory may be in order. There were (still are) plenty of conspiracy theories about why the Hindenburg exploded so I can get why the technical difficulties blackout has landed in the la-la land of plots and counterplots.

Plots you say, well I’ve got a few of my own.

Boulevard of Nightmares

If you’ve been a Chiefs fan for more than one game and if you’re reading this, which is highly likely, then you can remember the wide open spaces called highways and boulevards for opposing running backs to run through the Chiefs defensive front in 2017 and 18. Last year, the Chiefs allowed opposing teams to rush for 132.1 yards per game. On Sunday? The Jacksonville Jaguars rushed for 81 yards. That may be significant if it becomes a trend, because in 2018, the only defenses that averaged better than that were at 80.0 and 80.2 rushing yards allowed per game: Chicago and New Orleans respectively.

So, when you hear that the Kansas City Chiefs defense played better against the run, that’s really an under-exaggeration. The Jags best RB, Leonard Fournette, rushed for 66 yards. If you are a newbie to the NFL game, the benchmark for RBs has always been 100 yards in a game. If a RB is able to reach that mark, the likelihood of his team winning goes up. Was it the game plan for Jacksonville to throw the ball more and so that is the reason for the lower numbers of rushing yards? I highly doubt that, because by the time backup QB Gardner Minshew came into the game, Patrick Mahomes had already guided the Chiefs offense to two scores. Consequently, Minshew was tasked with catching up via the passing game, which, he turned out to be pretty good at. However, teams know that if you want to keep PMII off the field, you have to control the ball… which they didn’t… and a big part of the reason for that is that the Chiefs defense did, pretty much, shut their running game down. Not completely, but enough to make passing the ball their only avenue… er, boulevard… to catching the Chiefs.

St. Bernard’s: Tyrann Mathieu & Frank Clark

When the Chiefs decided to move on from Eric Berry and Justin Houston (as well as Dee Ford) this past offseason, they targeted Tyrann Mathieu and Frank Clark to save our ship. The Chiefs were…sending out an S.O.S. … and Clark and Mathieu were the men for the job. In the first regular season game, I’m not so sure either of them distinguished themselves.

Yes, Frank Clark had an INT but he didn’t have any sacks. That’s notable because he was playing against a third string left tackle, someone who normally played OG and hadn’t played LT since high school. Sure, the Jags may have doubled him a lot in pass protection but it’s not only the lack of producing a sack that bothers me, its that he only had 1 tackle. The Chiefs had 9 players with 3 tackles or more and perhaps the Jags were game planning to run their offense away from Clark, but whatever the reason, we’re going to have to see more production from Clark to make me feel he was worth the investment.

Mathieu was nearly the same. He had 3 tackles but I also recall seeing him up too far into the box on a play that produced a TD pass play right over the middle of the field, right where he would have been if he’d stayed home on that play. Sure, we’re going to see some of that this year when he takes risks, which I’m all for and yes, Juan Thornhill wasn’t there to stop that play either. However, the general consensus this past offseason in evaluating 2018, was that this new group of “superior” Safeties was going to offer the CBs improved protection over the top… but I don’t recall seeing that in this game. An area of needed improvement, still.

Unplayed Cards: Stunts and Blitzes

I’m giving the Defense a “C” grade in this contest largely because it’s not only early in the year and they haven’t played together enough to “coagulate” yet… but because DC Steve Spagnuolo doesn’t want to tip his hand by installing the full measure of his devotion to the scheme. Once he is faced with a do-or-die game, that’s when I think we’ll see the front seven at their best. Sure, that will be long after they’ve had time to communicate better, and execute the basics of the schemes better, but I’m pretty sure Spags doesn’t have 300 plays in his pocket like Andy Reid does. Consequently, he doesn’t want to divulge the complete package… yet.

I won’t be at all surprised to see the Chiefs throw a very vanilla defense at the Raiders next week. I imagine even Raiders fans are predicting the Chiefs win big (here’s an 11 point Chiefs predicted win — 35-to-24 — by a Raiders centric site). So, why would Spags give anything away this Sunday when the Chiefs have to turn around and play the Ravens the next week, a team that gave the Chiefs perhaps their toughest test in 2018. However, my angle on that game is… if the Raiders lowly “O” scores 24 points, it must be because… the ghost of Bob Sutton has taken over Steve Spagnuolo’s body (and yes, I’m well aware that Bob Sutton is not dead… or… maybe… just maybe… he died two years ago).

End of Game Garbage Yards

Maybe the fact that was most hidden about the Jags game because of the lost time at the end (lost somewhere in space) is the realization that the Chiefs D played soft-serve vanilla because they knew the Jagettes were too far behind to catch them. After all, the score blossomed from 37-to-13 to 40-to-26 all in the 4th quarter. If this game had been close, the defense would have been much better and Gardner Minshew may not have looked like the second coming of Johnny Unitas. It’s hard to disagree with that assessment. Go ahead and try… but you must be a Patriots fan if you do.

Summary Postcard

I hate to say this but we may be witness to a lot of Defensive Sandbagging in the early parts of this season. Ask yourself these questions: if you are playing defense on a team with the best offense, possibly in the history of history, would you take it easy, late in games sometimes, when you’re ahead by a kajillion points? How about if you are the Defensive Coordinator? Yep, that’s what I thought. Me too.

If fans are looking for the best that this defense has to offer, they may have to resign themselves to playing a game of “Where’s Waldo” but, never finding the little devil, not until the end of the season anyway. By then, Patrick Mahomes will probably have 5,000 and 50 again, and all we’ll be needing is for the D to show up for the playoffs. Here’s hoping they can flip that switch and at least give us a glimpse of good along the way.

Laddie Morse  — ArrowheadOne

P.S. The Chiefs 40-to-26 victory over the Jags top rated defense on their home court, is a lot more impressive than the Ravens 59-to-10 win over the hapless Dolphins.

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