Kansas City Chiefs: Reviewing the team’s performance against the Browns

Grading the Coverage

I mentioned earlier how the outside pass rushers were often dropped into coverage last Sunday. One player that Kansas City fans have been excited to see is linebacker Dorian O’Daniel. Primarily for his skill set of being able to cover running backs out of the backfield that has caused significant issues for the Chiefs defense. While O’Daniel saw more playing time this week despite Anthony Hitchens playing injured, he was never placed on running back Duke Johnson Jr. who shredded the Chiefs defense in the passing attack. Just about every defender on Kansas City’s defense was tasked with Johnson aside from O’Daniel.

Hitchens suffered an injury last week bruising his ribs. You might remember him struggling to get off the field as he was in tremendous pain as he left the field. That didn’t stop him from getting involved against the Browns the following week. Whether that’s due to Hitchens wanting to play or Sutton wanting to go with veteran experience is unknown. Hitchens played for 69 percent of the defensive snaps which led to O’Daniel getting only 44 percent and Ben Niemann getting 15 percent. Despite the painful injury, Hitchens still tied leading the team with eight solo tackles.

The cornerbacks had, for the most part, another solid outing. Steven Nelson got beat on a deep play in which he failed to get his hands on the receiver right off the snap of the ball allowing for a massive gain of 38 yards to Antonio Callaway. He didn’t let that stop him from competing since, on the very next play, he baited Mayfield into a throw that he picked off by jumping the route. Considering that the Chiefs cornerbacks are not playmakers, and are typically guys that keep their eyes on the receiver instead of the ball, it was an awe-inspiring play.

One player in coverage that impressed me was cornerback Kendall Fuller. While he had a bit of a rocky start to the season, Fuller has been playing pretty well the last few weeks. During the game against Cleveland, Fuller was targeted six times while only giving up two passes for 18 yards. Cornerback Orlando Scandrick did a good job as well shutting down his assignments being targeted five times while allowing three for only 18 yards.

Safety Ron Parker spent more time closer to the line of scrimmage against the Cleveland Browns with safety Eric Murray playing the last line of defense. We saw a great deal of cover two defense which is supposed to help Ron Parker only having to cover half of the field instead of the entire length, but Parker continues to look slow to react. The Chiefs tasked him much of the game covering tight end David Njoku who caught three of his passes against Parker for 42 yards.