Chiefs vs Chargers: Making sense of the madness!

What I do believe was an isolated incident was the perceived lack of effort and execution in the first half. The Chiefs looked completely flat and uninterested in playing football. That is unlike the Chiefs team we saw most of last season. Yes, they had issues during their early season losing streak but the team we saw down the stretch last year played with great heart and effort. It’s a little concerning that we started our home opener flat (again) but the heart and fight that they showed in coming back from such a deficit is encouraging. I don’t think we’ll see KC start that flat on a regular basis.

The run defense is a concern though. It was just not good. The dominant defensive line was not that dominant, the inside linebackers were not good and the secondary didn’t tackle very well if the ball carrier got to them. I still believe in the defensive line and frankly, if the defensive backs are making the tackles you’ve got issues even if they do tackle well. What will be the deciding factor of how good or bad this run defense will be this season is the play of the inside linebackers.

Both DJ and March were undisciplined and constantly out of position. That’s rare for DJ so I’m going to chalk that up to him having a bad day. What is a concern is the play of March next to him. He doesn’t need to be a star out there he just needs to be Josh Mauga-esqe and KC should at least be average on run defense (assuming DJ isn’t this bad all year).

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