Room For Improvement: Despite Dominance, Work Remains For K.C. – Once again, the Houston Texans proved they can hang with the Chiefs… for one quarter. After that, Kansas City dominated whenever they wanted to. Fans should not infer, however, that the relative ease with which the Chiefs won on Thursday evening is indicative of a flawless performance. In fact, this win showed that the Chiefs still have a lot to work on. Here’s a look at what went wrong for K.C., and how they can fix it.
Drops-R-Us
During the offseason, Patrick Mahomes asserted his view that Demarcus Robinson could be a number one receiver, in several places. While he’s certainly developed the route running skills to make big plays, untimely drops continue to be a part of his game. Those drops cost the Chiefs an opportunity to gain an early lead. While Robinson was the main offender, Sammy Watkins also dropped a pass that he failed to address properly. The throw got on him kind of quickly, thanks to great anticipation by Mahomes. That does make the catch harder, but Watkins still needs to come away with it.
An Offensive Run Defense
The Kansas City run defense was porous early, allowing David Johnson to rack up an eye-popping 10 yards per carry. The Chiefs certainly seem to miss Mike Pennel, and the injury, to Khalen Saunders, didn’t help. That said, the NFL is a “next man up” league, so the Chiefs have to be able to get the job done with the personnel they have. If they don’t improve significantly next week, fans should be very nervous, heading into the Baltimore game.
LB Play and LB Snaps
Without preseason games, experts have warned that tackling would be poor. This was not true for Chiefs’ young secondary, which acquitted itself well. However, it was very true for their Linebacking core. Damien Wilson looked painfully slow, frequently unable to reach RBs, who should’ve been within his range. Ben Niemann was in good position, but missed multiple tackles against bigger players. Anthony Hitchens played pretty well, without doing anything that especially stood out. The surprise of the evening was Dorian O’Daniel, who sacked Deshaun Watson, and finished with four tackles — tied for the 3rd most on the team — despite very limited defensive snaps (5). DOD stood out from the other linebackers and looked to clearly be the best of the group.
If O’Daniel is still struggling to grasp the defense, that’s one thing, but if Steve Spagnuolo is keeping him off the field because of his size, that needs to stop. DOD needs to play and Willie Gay needs to get some reps. For the rest of this Linebacker group, even an average outing, would be a pleasant surprise.
Short Yardage Run Blocking
As any fantasy owner can tell you, Clyde Edwards Helaire had a terrific night, becoming the first rookie to rush for over 100 yards, in his debut since Saquon Barkley, per ArrowheadPride. Those yards weren’t just quantity, but quality too, as CEH averaged 5.5 YPC. Still, it wasn’t all roses for Kansas City’s first round RB. On six carries, inside the five yard line, Edwards-Helaire totaled -2 yards (PFF Fantasy Football). Some of that can be chalked up to Andy Reid calling vanilla plays in a blowout, but the fact remains, CEH was met in the backfield far too much. Chiefs Offensive Line doesn’t need to be a juggernaut, but they need to do well enough that Clyde isn’t met by three defensive linemen two steps after the hand-off.
Responding as Fans
I’d love to just conclude the article here and give you a synopsis of the above points. Instead, I need to address something important. The fans did an excellent job providing a game-day atmosphere despite severe restrictions on the number of attendees. However, some fans did an exceptionally poor job of receiving the Chiefs, and Texans, show of unity. As a mostly conservative guy, I get it. I understand that media is generally more liberal and you’re tired of having ideas you disagree with thrust in your face. Perhaps the natural reaction in that situation is to boo, as many fans did. Please don’t. Please do what the players did and try to understand where someone else is coming from. The players could have kneeled. They could have sat. Whether you agree with them or not, understand that they believe that people who look like them are facing a disproportionately violent response, from law enforcement. In the context of that belief, it makes sense that they are angry, it makes sense that they are unspeakably sad, but in that context they found it in themselves to stand for the National Anthem, because it mattered to YOU: because they wanted YOU to know that they are also listening. In the midst of their grief they took steps to ensure that you could hear their message without being distracted by the presentation. I think it’s more than fair that we offer them the same deference. Listen.
Ransom Hawthorne — ArrowheadOne
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