Chiefs Defense: To Beat the Texans

Chiefs Defense: To Beat the Texans

It’s not that the Kansas City Chiefs offense may not struggle tomorrow against the Houston Texans but I’ve seen the offense struggle before. It’s been the defense that was supposed to be one of the best in the league this season: at least the front seven. So, as I sat watching the Chiefs take on the Chargers at a bar called, “The Point After North” in Lewisville, Texas last Sunday, my shock came mostly over their defensive collapse… than the offensive ineptitude. However, it did help to eventually produce a memorable come from behind victory.

It’s hard to step back from the edge of a game that revealed such promise for a team previously devoid of comeback ability but, it’s time. It’s time to step back. Yes, it was a “novel” game, as you may have noticed I pointed out earlier this week. Let’s not take away from the magic that happened when Alex Smith drove the team down the field in overtime and then dove through a Stargate chamber taking us all on a journey to another world in the process.

Enough of the hype. There are realities too. The realities of the 2016 Kansas City Chiefs game one. Honestly, I’d rather not get into it… yet it must be done. Otherwise, how can we know what to expect from this team in the future?

Swiss Cheese D.J.?

There were not simply holes in the Chiefs defense, the whole unit did not play well. When I say “unit” I mean they not only didn’t play well individually but good defense is played in harmony with teammates and that simply didn’t happen until the 4th quarter. At least not enough to win back possessions during the first half of the game.

So, let’s get a little more specific. I’ll begin with the play of inside linebacker Derrick Johnson who is normally phenomenal. D.J. missed tackles, was out of position, sometimes missed in coverage, overran plays and at times looked outmatched when blocked. I could tell early on that D.J. was not having a good game because he was trying to do too much. That’s what a player is often attempting to do when he consistently overruns a play. By getting himself closer to the sideline than the running back he essentially was taking himself out of the play. It obviously wasn’t a good look and obviously wasn’t the D.J. we’ve come to know and love.

I recently heard Tim Grunhard talk about the minimal number of “green-light” practices the NFL imposes on each now as opposed to the two-a-day practices he used to suffer through 20 years ago with Marty Schottenheimer as head coach. While those teams looked worn out by year’s end — to their disadvantage — these teams, especially the Chiefs on Sunday, appear to have needed the first half of football to wake up from the namby-pamby non-contact stupor of the current day preseason practices. I doubt you’ll ever hear D.J. make excuses like that but it makes some sense considering how the Chiefs came out so flat in the first half. However, it’s hard to accept an excuse like that because the visiting San Diego Chargers came in ready to rock-n-roll all over our hapless behemoths.

To Beat the Texans

To win against the Houston Texans D.J. will need to make some tackles and big hits… preferably early in the contest. Frank Rodela made a point this week of writing that the Young Chiefs Need a Week One Win For Confidence and he not only hit a home run there but I’ll take it a step further… the whole defense needs D.J. to win, and win early, to get them pumped in a stadium that will be rockin’-n-ready for revenge. Think about the way the D is designed on running plays: the D-line flows in unison to the ball carrier minimizing the size of the holes while the SAM linebacker (Jusatin March-Lillard) takes on one of the linemen or fullback sent to block him and the WILL linebacker (D.J.) avoids any other blockers on his way to the ball carrier and makes the tackle. Now, the whole purpose is to stop the run and this is a bit of an over-simplification but Derrick Johnson will need a good game vs. the Texans for us to tell that the unit is playing together based on the general blueprint.

Justin Time For Nothing

While Derrick Johnson looked less than his normal self, Justin March-Lillard overall defensive play was bad enough for me to say, he doesn’t appear to be the solution at that position. He was running into the wrong holes to tackle runners that had chosen other holes to run though. He was not taking on the necessary blockers that would allow D.J. to make the play he needed to be making. Both he and D.J. were overrunning plays as if to make up for the lack of penetration that the defensive linemen were supposed to be getting. We’ve all seen March-Lillard look as if he would be the next Derrick Johnson (once D.J. hangs up his sneakers). But, this puts all that in doubt. At least to have him playing this role… it makes me glad that John Dorsey signed Sam Barrington. He will be needed and I think he could be the answer they’re looking for at that position. JML is not. In this game, March-Lillard was in for 51 defensive snaps or 70% of the 73 total defensive plays possible. March-Lillard was in on 9 tackles while D.J. was in on 5. Some might say, JML had a good game. JML is not supposed to have a good game (by that standard)… D.J. is! You know what I mean by that… Derrick Johnson plays the role of “you-go-get-em.” Not JML.

To Beat the Texans

To beat the Texans Justin March-Lillard will need to sacrifice his body for the cause. I’d prefer to see someone else doing his job but he appears to be the only viable candidate right now who is healthy. Yes, I still have a man-crush on March-Lillard, but he’s playing out of position and I hope that more than a layman football fan like myself can see that (as he jumps up and down wildly waving his hands from the top of Arrowhead stadium screaming, “Hey Andy. Up here. March-Lillard is out of position, hey Andy, up here, March-Lillard is out of position… and by the way, could you tell him to drop the highfalutin hyphen!”). I’m afraid that having JML misinterpret his role will be akin to having a ten-year-old drive you to work each day. You know someone is going to get hurt… you just hope it’s not D.J..

No Go Fo Po & Da Bros

I probably should have mentioned the defensive line before any player or group of players. The whole offseason all we seemed to know for sure was that the defensive line was going to be “one of the best in the league.” Based on that game? No. They actually looked like one of the worst defensive lines in the league vs. the Chargers. Once again, I don’t know if the minimal number of greenlight practices was to blame but there was no reason for the holes and gaps and loss of gap integrity that happened over and over again. When I re-watched the game with special attention paid to the first half, it was apparent that the Chargers offensive line was using stunts and cross-blocking schemes to open holes. However, you can’t blame what was going on in the trenches on scheme alone.

Below is a typical example of how the defensive line was getting pushed off the line of scrimmage by the Chargers offensive line for the better part of the game.

Not only did the Bolts O-line clear a huge path for Melvin Gordon on this play but both Phillip Gaines and Ron Parker brought fish & tackle to the play and came away with neither a fish nor a tackle.

So how about a goal line stand? More like Goal Line Sand… running through your fingers.

Here, Melvin Gordon jab-steps left, then runs right into Chargers #74 guard Orlando Franklin’s booty because Gordon is not a very good running back even though the Chiefs D-line made him look that way for 43 minutes and 13 seconds. Below is another view of the same play:

Here you can see that one-second into the play the Chargers had already opened up a sizable gap on the right. In frame two Melvin Gordon is squeezing through a gap next to the right tackle even though the original hole was between the Guard and the Tackle. What is striking to me is the top photo in this set because there appears to be such little presence of Chiefs defensive linemen. Understandably, this shot is from behind the Chargers backfield but the number of Chiefs players who are winning their one-on-one battle isn’t noticeable.

To Beat the Texans

To beat the Texans the K.C. defensive front will have to win their hand-to-hand combat battles and penetrate on a consistent basis. The Texans O-line may be improved this year with the additions of Guards Jeff Allen and Tony Bergstrom (although he’s currently the backup Center). The strongest move, in my estimation, was bringing in RB Lamar Miller to pair with QB Brock Osweiler. Miller is a more versatile back than Melvin Gordon and I expect to see more screens to Miller. Dontari Poe needs to shove Center Greg Mancz mandible into Brock Osweiler’s Corpus Callosum (not far from Corpus Christi) on every single passing play. If the big three can get that kind of penetration the Chiefs defensive backs will do much better.

Defenseless Backs

The Defenseless Backs were nowhere to be seen until Marcus Peters knocked a pass away causing a defensive stop. See below.

Rotten pic quality yes but, when Marcus Peters makes this play with 7:00 left in the 4th quarter the defense somehow got better. I have to say I really believe in one inspirational play inspiring another inspirational play and so on and so forth. I think they call it momentum. Big MO was well in play on this day.

I watched what seemed like countless numbers of missed tackles… many by Ron Parker… but the defensive backfield was simply horrible. Eric Berry had a couple of nice tackles (6 total) but, nothing to write home about. You could tell he’s still getting up to game speed. Hell, they all looked like they were still getting up to game speed. I hope they realized it was a “green light” game.

To Beat the Texans

To beat the Texans the Chiefs D-backs must play tighter man coverage and play it well. The Texans have DeAndre Hopkins who nearly won last season’s first game for them until the second half began and for some inexplicable reason the Texans forgot he was on their team. Now, they’ve added the 4.32 (40) WR Will Fuller who will not be getting covered at any point by Keivarae Russell… and that’s probably a very good thing. Fuller and Hopkins are followed by Jaelen Strong and Braxton Miller (who I expect to one day be a start in this league). Cohesion and coordination between DBs will be critical. In the game vs. the Bolts it looked like guys didn’t know who was covering whom and there is no excuse for WRs being left uncovered in the end zone and Danny Woodhead wasn’t the only time it happened. Rivers overthrew one of his WRs on another play who had no DB within 5 yards of him.

Football is the ultimate team sport. The cooperative efforting towards a common goal on each play pushes a team’s cause forward… or backward if the team is not working together. Re-watching the Chiefs and Chargers allowed me to get the goosebumps again… but there was so much of that game that made me concerned for the game against the Texans. It can be a good thing to get your mistakes out of the way early… if you learn from them. Here’s to the institution of higher education!

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Note: One closing comment about the hit San Diego Safety Jahleel Addae placed on Jeremy Maclin. I replayed it several times over and Addae lowers his head and aims right for Maclin’s head. We talk all the time about the rules limiting the players on the field but that is one of the dirtiest plays I’ve ever seen. If they can legislate personal fouls and kick players out for what they view is extra-curricular activities (after the play) then why can’t they see what everyone else sees, which is an intentional effort to assault and maim another player, and then kick those guys out too? The play is deplorable and so is the fact that they are doing nothing to protect honest players from villains like Jahleel Addae.