Chiefs Fans: For Those Who Need
Symbols, or Cymbals! PART I
by David Bell
A Monday Night Circus: Center Ring, Under
the Lights and the Light of a Waning Moon
Week Four is NFL Monday Night Football, a game pitting the Kansas City Chiefs against the Denver Broncos at Mile High Stadium in Denver is of great Chief’s Fan interest and the first game for a big NFL National Night for viewing with Patrick Mahomes II at the helm of the Chiefs Offense.
This is the type of big tent game that you can expect Patrick Mahomes to be in the center ring for as he wows the crowd. The Chiefs will have national attention in the Monday night contest and the Chiefs young quarterback, who has been so much in the headlines, will have a chance to ply his wares and show that he is an ascending star.
Back at Arrowhead, last Sunday… the Chiefs set an attendance record since the Stadium was remodeled as fans flocked to the stadium to see the Chiefs. The apparel stores sold out of Mahomes Jerseys. The fans are excited and the Chiefs didn’t disappoint offensively as they scored 38 points. Do I have my views of the defense? A symbolic ‘Meh!’… is about all I can muster.
What Moon Is Overhead as We Are
Heading to a Harvest Moon?
Mahomes has shown no indication that being the starter quarterback and center of attention and the target of the opposing defenses has phased him one single bit. Whether it’s from playing as a starter in the NFL, leading the offense, making throws, running through progressions and checking down or calling audibles he has been a peak performer–top notch. Mahomes has not been fazed by all of the different looks thus far in the young NFL season so the question is, in the waning gibbous phase of the moon, will a strong defensive front for the Broncos toss him for a loop? Or will we again see Mahomes handle a different kind of pressure with panache? Nope. I don’t have a real question in my mind here: PMII will own the Broncos.
However: contests in the AFC West are always up in the air. Let’s hope that the waning phase of the moon is apropos to the waning of defensive woes that have plagued the Chiefs since before opening day. This then would match the phase off the moon in the sky over Mile High Stadium and what is fading away is the inability to stop opposing offenses.
Is the Waning Gibbous a Sign
of Disappearing Defense Woes?
Is the last phase of the moon heading towards a new moon symbolic of the waning of defensive woes? If pundit and analysts are seeing what is going on then surely Andy Reid and Bob Sutton are working with the defensive staff to come up with a complete game solution. The Chiefs cannot long depend on the offense to outscore the opposition each contest out and win the shootouts. Sooner or later the defense has got to step up and play the game in position with players doing their individual jobs.
In the prior weeks’ contest against the Pittsburgh Steelers the Chief’s defense was horrible. In the first half of this contest, the defense appeared to make progress. They held the Jimmy Garoppolo led west coast team to 10 points and had 3 and outs giving the ball back to the offense which duly did it’s job and scored 35 points. It might be said that Jimmy Garoppolo himself put his team on the skids, knocking himself out of the game with a knee injury that was his own fault.
Some Defensive Upsides
The Chiefs had 6 sacks during the game but one was flagged off due to Chris Jones jumping offside, negating a Dee Ford sack. Allen Bailey, Justin Houston and Dee Ford chalked up 5 official sacks. Justin Houston played better than he had the prior two weeks but from an overall perspective? He is still not the player we have seen in the past. I know there are analysts out there who have looked at Houston and his plays who say the same thing. Dee Ford, who sustained a groin injury last Sunday, played well and used alternative moves inside as an alternative to his speed rush. The backups and their play are not looking to set fire to the woodpile. I continue to feel a bit of disappointment in the progress of OLBs Breeland Speaks and Tanoh Kpassagnon.
Derrick Nnadi is the real deal at nose tackle! He gobbles up his opponent and is handling double teams. That is a very good side and is a factor that has been missing from the defensive front three since the departure of Dontari Poe. No. I am not seeing that level of play. I am seeing the signs of it though! I should observe here that Xavier Williams is playing pretty well as a newcomer to the organization as well.
When running a cover one set or a hybrid of it, Orlando Scandrick played well again at corner-back. The same applies to both Steven Nelson and Kendall Fuller. They were not faked out of their shoes. No one on defense played well enough to write home about except perhaps Derrick Nnadi and Dee Ford.
Alright, Flip Me Over
On the flip side, when Sutton went with cover two, the inability to stop the 49’er aerial game was evident. The run game defense was at times, horrible. Chiefs linebackers failed to stop Matt Breida from running outside the tackles, the OLB’s did not set the edge and the ILB’s did not flow to the ball carrier well at all. I also thought all of the defensive linemen were getting handled at times, allowing the runs to kick inside. It should be observed that the limiting factor for Ragland has been his bruised knee and it’s good to see him re-emerging into the lineup with more snaps.
Tackling was again a huge area of concern. It didn’t matter who it was, the Chiefs did not wrap up and take the running backs or receivers down and gang tackling by other Chiefs was abysmal. I see too much of flat footed efforts and too much worry with stripping the ball instead of stopping the ball carrier. This has got to stop. As a team, the Chiefs need to stop the advance first instead of trying to make showboat plays.
You can read PART II of “Chiefs Fans: For Those Who Need Symbols, or Cymbals!” tomorrow on Saturday morning right here at ArrowheadOne. Until then….
David Bell – ArrowheadOne
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