Chiefs Defense Needs To Make A Statment

The Chiefs have been embarrassed multiple times this season but last weeks defensive buffoonery against the usually offensively inept Cleveland Browns takes the cake. What made the gashing on the ground so painful was that the Chiefs knew it was coming. At halftime, I turned to a friend and said, “Well, the Browns have absolutely no intention of throwing the ball. All the Chiefs need to do is shut down the run and keep the ball away from Cribbs and they will get out with a victory.” I knew it. You knew it. The Pope knew it. It didn’t matter.

Bad things happen. All teams have bad games. It is just that when a bad team has a bad game it can be historically bad. Still, what happened against Cleveland doesn’t really matter. What matters is how the Chiefs respond to it. They will be playing for their pride this Sunday.

“The way we’ve been playing against the run the last few weeks is embarrassing,” safety Brown said. “Our focus this week is more on stopping the run than it’s ever been because we haven’t been doing a good job.”

“We were in eight-man fronts the whole game. We were selling out to stop the run. We knew what they were going to do by the end of the first quarter. We knew what their game plan was and what plays they were going to run. We just couldn’t stop them.”

If the Chiefs defense is ever going to turn the corner, however, it won’t be the Mike Browns and Mike Vrabels who get it done for them. It is the young players like Glenn Dorsey, Brandon Flowers and Tyson Jackson who need to bounce back in the face of adversity. There will be no better test than traveling to Paul Brown Stadium to take on the Bengals, who love to run the football and are looking to close out the AFC North. It is time for the Chiefs defense to show a little toughness.

“That’s all anybody’s been talking about,” Jackson said. “Guys like Mike Vrabel, Mike Brown, the leaders of our defense, they’ve been stepping up and trying to lead us. That’s about the worst. When you can’t stop the run, it’s always going to be a long day.”