A diagnostic of the Chiefs defense: The issues are manifold. But are they fixable?
In early January last season, Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones held court in front of his locker and uttered a statement that would have made very little sense only a few weeks earlier.
“Nobody,” he said, “wants to play against this defense right now.”
The biggest turnaround on a Super Bowl team arrived late in the 2019 season. The Chiefs had spent their offseason resources addressing the defense, from a staff overhaul to high-dollar personnel acquisitions.
It came together in November, and in the final seven weeks of the year, no NFL team allowed fewer points per game. Quarterbacks were at their statistical worst against the Chiefs. The eventual NFL champions, as Jones pointed out before a practice, had turned a liability into a collective strength.
One year later, the Chiefs defense is once again developing a trend.
But this time in the opposite direction.
Or is it just a blip? The Chiefs have allowed 31 points in back-to-back games to Carolina and Las Vegas, and at times they’ve offered little interference. The Panthers, the league’s 21st-ranked offense, used anything and everything to march down field. And the Raiders, the league’s ninth-best scoring team, averaged 6.4 yards per play, a number that tops what even the Chiefs offense generates.
“Mentally, we’re kind of upset with the last two outings we’ve had,” Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu said. “I wouldn’t say that we’re down. We’ve been in these situations before — the kind of situations where you have to lean on each other, take the coaching and find a way to get better. I think we have the right guys in our room. Obviously it’s been a rough couple of weeks for us defensively, but I know we’ve got the kind of guys that can turn it around, and that’s the only thing that matters.”
So what exactly is going on? It’s not a one-source problem, and therefore it’s not a one-source solution, either. But there are solutions, ones this team has shown a capability of implementing in the past.
The Raiders have twice exposed some of the Chiefs’ vulnerabilities. Or, better yet, they have effectively negated the Chiefs’ best strength.
The Chiefs defense is built on the front four. That’s where they have invested their money. Jones and Frank Clark will make a combined $34 million this year. Yet on Sunday, Derek Carr averaged 3.05 seconds of time to throw each pass. (Only Baker Mayfield averages more than 3.05 seconds to throw this season.)
How can that be? Teams are diverting more and more attention to Jones and Clark. Jones rarely has a one-on-one matchup on the interior. And as Clark travels to the backfield, he’s often on the receiving end of a running back or tight-end chip.
It’s nothing new, really. And it’s nothing unique — the league’s best pass rushers are the subjects of opposition game plans. But the effectiveness of the strategy is new. At least against the Chiefs.
Last year, the other guys — those aside from Jones and Clark — totaled 28 sacks in 16 games, or 1.75 per game. In 2020, the supporting cast has supplied only 8 1/2 sacks in 10 games, or just 0.85 per game. That’s less than half the output of one year earlier.
After Jones (5 1/2 sacks) and Clark (4), only Taco Charton (2) has more than one sack, and he’s on injured reserve with a broken ankle. It’s pretty simple here — if teams aren’t worried about the threat of the other guys beating them, the attention on Jones and Clark will stick.
“When those guys get doubled, it is on everybody else to get pressure,” defensive end Alex Okafor said. “You’re asking a lot for guys to beat double teams, even those guys, who are capable. So when that happens, and we get the one-on-ones, no matter who you are on the d-line, you have to affect the quarterback when you get a one-on-one.
“That’s what we’re preaching this week.”
As we mentioned earlier, the defensive struggles aren’t confined to just one issue. In order to keep the pass rush a factor, you need to give the rushers opportunities to do their thing. There’s no better time to tee off on the quarterback than second- or third-and-long situations — the snaps in which he’s forced to throw.
The Chiefs, however, have been too ineffective on first and second down to provide those chances. Last week, they forced the Raiders into 11 third downs. That’s not a bad number on the surface of it. But in only one of those — just one — did the Raiders need to travel more than 6 yards.
That won’t cut it. Third-and-short keeps too much of the play sheet alive. And it keeps pass rushers guessing on what might come next.
“On first and second down with the pass rush, a lot of teams nowadays are keeping people in (to block) — tight ends, backs,” Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said. “And they do a really good job of it. I think a lot of (the lack of pass rush) goes into that. We’ll keep grinding away, and hopefully it gets better.”
There are other complications as of late. The Chiefs didn’t tackle well last week — 12 missed tackles in the game, per Pro Football Focus — though the metrics show that while Spagnuolo worried about that heading into the season, considering a shortened offseason program, tackling hasn’t been any worse than last season.
The Chiefs aren’t covering as well as they once were, either. Guys aren’t just open; they’re open early in their routes.
While the Chiefs have been better against the run this month, it’s come at the expense of the pass. They have allowed 606 passing yards in two games. That’s uncharacteristic. The Chiefs are still eighth in the NFL against the pass this season.
But recently they have developed some assignment breakdowns prompted by miscommunications, Mathieu said.
“It’s little things, but they’re important things,” Mathieu said.
Are all of these short-term issues? Or are they here to stay? As it just so happens, the Chiefs are walking into something of a perfect way to find out.
Tom Brady.
Although his best days might be behind him physically, he’s still as sharp as ever mentally. He still knows how to expose the flaws. Few get rid of the football more quickly to counteract a pass rush. Few are better absent one. Brady has a 107.0 quarterback rating this season without pressure. And he’s surrounded with plenty of capable weapons.
It’s a challenge to the very elements of the Chiefs defense that have under-performed the last two games.
“Listen, we have to find ways to do a little bit better — everybody, players, coaches, the whole thing,” Spagnuolo said. “It’s no different than coming off the Carolina game, where we felt we didn’t perform real well. That’s what we’ve done this week — nose to the grindstone. I love the way these guys react to situations like this.”