Chiefs: In Three and Up Two, by Paul Pulley – Three games into the 2019 NFL season and the Kansas City Chiefs already have a two game lead in the AFC West. A totally surprising outcome this early. I expected the Denver Donkeys to be bad, as I had them picked to finish last in the division. Denver hosts Jacksonville Sunday afternoon and if they drop this game, their season is going to be very long. The Raiders travel to Indianapolis on Sunday, and this should actually be a very good game. Meanwhile the Chargers will vacation in Miami and while there, will have a practice game versus the hapless Dolphins.
The Offensive Line
The O-line actually looked better against the Ravens than I expected them to. Erving is going to get beat on a regular basis, we just need to accept that, I believe Mahomes and the coaches do also, as I saw several times a rolling pocket was used.
There are too many of what I assume are missed assignments on the OL. Either that or very poor communication. There are way too many instances where a defender came at Mahomes untouched, and that just shouldn’t happen. Not all was from the left side of the line, which was a little disconcerting. Mahomes getting hit 5 times in the 1st quarter alone can only be called bad protection, but adjustments were obviously made, as he was only hit 4 more times the rest of the game. The fact that two of the hits on our QB resulted in personal fouls against the defense, showed that Baltimore was being overly aggressive, and over aggressiveness by defenses is something we will probably see the remainder of the season.
The Running Game
What running game?! We don’t need no stinkin’ running game. The Chiefs actually had their best outing, rushing the ball, versus the Ravens, gaining 140 yards on the ground, 124 by the running backs. With that said, I believe it was Arrowhead One writer, Ransom Hawthorne, that said the Chiefs are better off using screens and short passes than they would be running, and after 3 games, this is holding out to be very true.
The Chiefs running backs have combined to gain 263 yards on 65 attempts through 3 games, a very respectable 4 yard/carry average. But with all of our running backs having excellent hands, they have compiled 24 catches on 26 targets for a total of 185 yards, an excellent 7.7 yards per completion. Included in these stats is the screen to Darrel Williams on 3rd and 9, that sealed the victory for the Chiefs Sunday. The reaction by Ravens safety, number 23, Tony Jefferson after that play was priceless. Jefferson, after making the tackle on Williams, but too late, flopped over on his belly and laid on the ground like a 4 year old throwing a tantrum.
The Boomerang Defense
For those of you not familiar with Kansas City, there is an amusement park here called Worlds of Fun. The park has been around for a long time, since my early teens, at least. Anyway, there is a roller coaster at Worlds of Fun called, “The Boomerang,” it pulls the cars backwards up an incline, then releases to run a track that includes a full loop and several flips. At the end of the course, the cars are grabbed, pulled up the other end of the track and then the coaster runs the same course backwards.
The Chiefs defense is a lot like this. We get an excellent play that stops the offense in their tracks… then we get flipped and they give up a huge gain. We defend a pass play with pressure on the QB that has no chance to succeed… then we go backwards and give up a long pass play with no pressure at all. Forwards, backwards, loop de loop, flipped upside down, a Boomerang ride.
I’ve heard a lot of negatives because the Chiefs defense allowed the Ravens to gain over 450 yards, with over 200 of those as rushing yards. To me this isn’t a big concern. I would like to see our run defense play better, and I believe they will as the season progresses, but the Ravens are almost unique in that they are built as an old school type team. They attack with a power running game and a strong defense, with most of the NFL being aerial, and defenses built primarily to stop the passing game, the Ravens will have success against a lot of teams. With that being said, we need to remind ourselves that the powerful Ravens defense gave up over 500 yards to the Chiefs offense.
Lamar Jackson’s Wounded Ducks
Jackson is definitely a dual threat QB. His running ability might be the best of any QB in the league, but I was not impressed by his passing game. He had one excellent deep throw to Marquise Brown for a 31 yard bomb… if you call a measly 31 yards, a bomb. However, I saw mostly overthrows and inaccurate passes that led his receivers out of bounds. Then there were the two completions that probably shouldn’t have been. Jackson threw up two wounded ducks on the wings of a prayer, and had his prayer answered both times. Excellent plays by his receivers bailed him out on both, but if Jackson keeps throwing garbage like that, at some point it’s going to bite him.
Earl’s Augury
Ravens safety Earl Thomas said last week that he would prevent all of the Chiefs big plays. Being true to his word, the Chiefs didn’t have a single completion for more than 83 yards and our longest rush went for a paltry 41 yards, with Thomas making that tackle.
Now, Thomas is insinuating that if the Ravens and Chiefs meet again, the outcome will be different. I have to agree with him. I believe if there is a second game in the postseason, Mahomes will throw for at least 5 touchdowns and the Chiefs will score a minimum of 45 points, While the Chiefs defense will limit the Ravens to little more than 100 rushing yards and will intercept at least two of Jackson’s passes.
On to the Lions
This Sunday, September 29, Patrick Mahomes will get to play his first regular season NFL game inside of a dome. In the very first game of Mahomes professional career, the first preseason game in 2017, the Chiefs played in Atlanta, and Mahomes went 7/9 for 49 yards and a TD. I expect he’ll do a little better this week. This would be a great game to have Tyreek Hill back, to utilize his speed on turf, but I don’t think that will happen.
I expect the Chiefs to handle the Lions without much problem. The Lions defense as a team, have 9 sacks for the season, but 5 of those are by their OLB’s, Devon Kennard and Christian Jones. The Lions QB, Matthew Stafford isn’t a very mobile QB and their running game has been a little anemic. While Stafford has the ability to throw the ball anywhere, to anyone, his accuracy can be off at times. I believe the Chiefs defense will perform quite well in this game, the Lions are a matchup that should suit the skill set of the Chiefs defense well.
If the Jaguars and Ravens defenses weren’t able to handle the Chiefs offense, then I can’t imagine the Lions posing a real threat to shut down Mahomes and company. So sit back, have a cold one and enjoy the next Victory, I know that I will.
A Final Reflection
I went to my Grandson’s Junior High School football game Monday evening. I watched passes hit the ground and a player fall on the ball and be called a completion. False starts with an offensive player 4 yards downfield went unflagged. Forward incompletions were ruled fumbles, holy cow, was it horrible. After watching the way that game was officiated, we really need to appreciate the NFL referees.
Paul Pulley — ArrowheadOne
The Week 4 referee lineup: pic.twitter.com/TO5kCc7yEK
— NFL Officiating (@NFLOfficiating) September 24, 2019
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