Chiefs have Bob’s SUTTON DEATH defense
By Laddie Morse
Yes, I’m excited that the Kansas City Chiefs have reached .500.
Yes, I thought the victory over the San Diego Chargers was critical to their playoffs hopes.
Yes, this has become a fun team to watch again.
However, the offense still has questions because it’s not one that will,
1) dominate a game or
2) come from behind… that we’ve seen yet,
3) nor will it put a game away early if it has the chance.
Consequently, the offense leaves fan needlessly nervous. Against San Diego, the score was 19-3, and the game was still appeared in doubt, until with 6:11 left in the fourth quarter, when Spencer Ware scored to make it 26 to 3. Then… the game was over. But not until then.
Prior to that, when the score 12-3, and Justin Houston made one of the all-time great pick-6 moves ever by a linebacker (even Philip Rivers admitted, “That was a heck of a play by him”), it was the defense that sent the score to 19-3. Not the offense.
Then again, Houston didn’t take his INT in for a TD until there was 3:27 left in the third quarter. So, the game was still in doubt at that point and the Chiefs offense was leaving it that way… in doubt. And the game was that way until well into the fourth quarter. So, every time the offense was on the field it had fans doubting and wondering.
However,
However…..
HOWEVER………..
Every time the defense takes the field… especially in the past 4-6 games, they inspire a feeling of confidence that no one, and I mean no one, is going to score on them. They are so much fun to watch you can’t wait to see them take the field again and again. They’ve been inspiring this feeling of confidence that they’ll get the job done, for weeks now and their performances have reached a level: elite. They have become… a shutdown defense… a drive killing defense… a nasty ninja defense (watch Eric Berry’s tackle)… Bob’s SUTTON DEATH defense!
Just six short weeks ago I equated the Chiefs defense with the Seven Dwarfs because it kept coming up fatally short. Now, for the past six weeks, it has completely turned things around.
In the past six weeks, which includes a couple of losses, the Chiefs defense has allowed a total of 73 points. That works out to less than 12.2 points per game. In the past five weeks they’ve allowed an average of 11 points per game. As the season goes on they are getting better and better.
Many believe the 1985 Chicago Bears had the best defense ever, and they allowed 12.4 points per game that year. However, I would go with the 1976 Pittsburgh Steelers defense which not only allowed just 9.9 points per game but five shutouts in their last eight games.
So, if the Chiefs can keep up their defensive progress, they’re approaching the legendary defensive stopping ability of the Bears. I doubt that we’ll ever see a group like the ‘76 Steelers again.
Elliot Harrison, an NFL Media analyst who publishes NFL.com’s weekly power rankings said this of the Chiefs on Tuesday,
"“[Spencer] Ware is far from the only offensive player who’s stepped up in the Chiefs’ four-game win streak. Not that it matters when the defense goes out and plays like the 2000 Ravens. Or is it the 1985 Bears? Thirty-nine points yielded over the past 16 quarters of football = elite D in 2015 … or any other year, for that matter.”"
While some may be uncomfortable with comparing the current Chiefs D to the ‘85 Bears, it’s at least curious that my opinion was written prior to finding out that Elliot Harrison made the same analogy.
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