The Kansas City Chiefs defense has given up a lot of yards and points this season. What does it need to be for the team’s ultimate success?
The Kansas City Chiefs are 5-0 after defeating the Jacksonville Jaguars at home 30-14. Week after week, this team has proven they are real contenders in the AFC defeating big opponents every week. With every week comes another challenge, and we saw that even the best defense in the NFL couldn’t stop the Chiefs in 2018.
Against the Jaguars it wasn’t left entirely up to the offense for a victory. Kansas City’s defense showed up on Sunday against Blake Bortles and the Jaguars offense. Only allowing 14 total points while coming away with five takeaways was a much needed showing for a defense that ranks last in the league regarding yards given up. However, we shouldn’t be worried about yards.
Since defensive coordinator Bob Sutton came to Kansas City with Andy Reid, the defensive philosophy has always been a bend but don’t break system. While the defense was solid in the first three seasons under the new coaching staff, it was never a shutdown defense by any means. In this era of offensive football, having a shutdown defense is nearly impossible, to begin with.
Against Jacksonville, the defense showed up in major ways. While the five turnovers can be chalked up to the lack of a quarterback in Blake Bortles to some extent, it was also the defense playing much better than what we’ve seen up to this point in the season. The defense isn’t going to steal the ball five times every week, but there are things from this game that we can hope to continue each week going forward.
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The first thing that can continue through the rest of the season that we saw against Jacksonville was players making tackles. It’s been a joke this season watching Kansas City’s defense try and tackle. You might remember against Denver when Royce Freeman was met in the backfield on a third down by three defenders and still somehow made it for a touchdown. That came at the hand of six defenders not being able to tackle.
Too many times we have seen safety Ron Parker try and body a ball carrier in open field which allowed for an even bigger gain. Parker is often the last line of defense which means he needs to be wrapping up instead of thinking that his hit alone with knock the ball carrier down. Missed tackles have been a significant problem for this defense, but that wasn’t the case on Sunday against Jacksonville.
If the Chiefs defense can continue to tackle as they did against the Jaguars, this defense already looks much better. Another factor that should remain is pressuring the opposing quarterback. Week 5 was the third week in a row that Kansas City has had four or more sacks. Outside linebacker Dee Ford has looked incredible this season with four sacks, and 12 quarterback hits through five weeks of football.
Unfortunately, Justin Houston is likely to miss a few weeks with a hamstring injury that was sustained early in the game against Jacksonville. The defensive front will feel the loss of Houston while he is out, but the overall unit stayed consistent hitting Blake Bortles in the backfield without him. Second-year Tanoh Kpassagnon and rookie Breeland Speaks both stepped up in big ways to fill in for the loss of the Pro Bowl linebacker.
The defensive line has also been a significant factor in pressuring the quarterback this season. Defensive end Chris Jones continues to look better each season, and defensive end Allen Bailey has brought a new spark to the field this season as well with four sacks and seven quarterback hits of his own. There’s no reason to think that the pass rush will all of a sudden be a non-factor going forward.
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Against the New England Patriots, it might be less of a factor. Tom Brady is known especially later in his career to get the ball out of his hands quickly. New England feeds off underneath routes picking apart defenses. It’s a major reason we saw Bob Sutton dropping eight into coverage for most of the Week 1 game last season.
The last reason that the defense can continue some of the success that we saw on Sunday is the offense. Given that the offense has been quick to score in almost every game this season, it’s putting pressure on opposing offenses to score early as well not to get behind early. With opposing offense trying to keep up with Kansas City, it tends to lead to mistakes as we saw against Jacksonville.
The Jaguars going for it on fourth down inside the red zone while down by ten was a great example. Jacksonville felt they needed to score a touchdown instead of kicking the field goal early in the game despite having the number one defense in the league. Whether the Chiefs can capitalize off those mistakes made by offenses and create turnovers will be a weekly question. They don’t have cornerbacks that are ballhawks like we were used to with Marcus Peters.
If there is one thing that Chiefs fans need to realize about the defense, it’s that the defense doesn’t have to be elite. It doesn’t even have to be good. If Kansas City can be average or even slightly below average, the team can win given the power of the offense. Coming up big in critical situations as they have in recent weeks is all the team needs to win.
Stopping opponents late in the game against Denver to get the ball back for a game-winning drive. Forcing turnovers when the opportunity presents itself. That’s all the defense has to do. We know that given the firepower of this offense, the defense will likely be in prevent mode for a good portion of the game. As long as they can make stops when it matters, this defense will be good enough. Remember, the Super Bowl Champions last year gave up over 500 yards passing in the big game.