Why the Kansas City Chiefs are the scariest team in the NFL
2. The Chiefs defense is showing signs of life.
I think most NFL fans have accepted at this point that the Chiefs offense is terrifying to stop. What has given teams hope is that the Chiefs defense had been about as bad as their offense had been good.
All season teams had been able to march the ball up and down the field on them. To the defense’s credit, they had come up with some key stops but they entered Sunday night’s game averaging a league worst 468 yards per game allowed.
On Sunday night they allowed almost half of what they had been averaging as they held the Bengals to just 239 yards of total offense, by far their best effort of the season. The 10 points they allowed dropped their season average to 26 points per game. While most teams would need their defense to allow less than 26 points per game, that number will absolutely work for the Chiefs as they have scored 27 points or more in all seven of their games.
The things I saw Sunday that gave me hope for the defense as the season goes forward and should scare opposing teams:
1. Bob Sutton actually made some tweaks to the scheme that seemed to help. Instead of almost exclusively having guys cover man to man, he played guys back more to prevent big plays. They still played their fair share of man-to-man, but it seemed to be a better fit for K.C.’s current personnel. I hope he continues to make adjustments like this going forward.
2. The inside linebacker play was much better. One of the biggest issues with the defense through the first six weeks was the sub-par play of the inside linebackers. Anthony Hitchens and Reggie Ragland were supposed to stabilize the position but instead had been struggling to start the year. They played arguably their best games Sunday and it’s not a coincidence that the defense responded with their best game of the season. If those two can get comfortable in this defense and just give the defense average play it should be enough for a team that scores as much as K.C. does.
3. Young players like Dorian O’Daniel, Jordan Lucas, and Derrick Nnadi seem to be coming on and giving the defense a boost. If these young players continue to improve the defense should only get better as the season goes on.
4. The defense had its best game of the season and Justin Houston and Eric Berry still aren’t healthy enough to get on the field. If they can be a solid defense without those two they have a chance to be even better if they can contribute anything down the stretch and into the playoffs.
The Chiefs don’t need a great defense to win this season, just an average one. The defense was even better than average on Sunday night and that should scare the rest of the NFL.
The final reason the NFL should fear the Chiefs was also on display Sunday night.