Kansas City Chiefs: Bob Sutton late to make important adjustments

The Kansas City Chiefs pull off a nail-biting victory over the Baltimore Ravens, but Bob Sutton continues to allow offenses to play at will.

The Kansas City Chiefs played in a what felt like playoff game defeating the Baltimore Ravens in overtime on Sunday afternoon. As expected, the Baltimore defense lived up to the hype being the number one defense in football, but it wasn’t their defense that that seemed to cause the most frustration for Chiefs fans. It was our defense that made us miserable.

We all know about the discussion of whether or not Bob Sutton should still have a job in Kansas City. Outside of Patrick Mahomes having an MVP season, it might be the most discussed topic in Kansas City. While most of you won’t argue against firing Sutton this offseason, there is another side to the argument whether it holds any weight or not.

More from Arrowhead Addict

• Former Chiefs cornerback in legal trouble in Las Vegas
• Chiefs Kingdom: Get ready to break contract news
• Chiefs news: Travis Kelce wants to host fan ‘chug-off’ in Germany
• Podcast: Breaking down the Chiefs biggest roster battles
• KC Chiefs send Dave Merritt to NFL coaching accelerator

Yes, the poor tackling is not a scheme issue. Inside linebackers getting blocked by tight ends physically shouldn’t happen. We continue to see both of these things happen on a consistent basis. The players causing boneheaded penalties are not part of the scheme although coaching surely has a hand in that issue.

While I have issues with all of these things, they are not my main frustration. The reason I want to pull my hair out on a weekly basis when watching the Chiefs defense is that of Sutton’s inability to scheme to his player’s strengths and waiting too long to adjust in the first place. Facing Baltimore gave us a good visual of that very problem.

Coming into the game on Sunday, Lamar Jackson had played three games total prior. In those three games, Jackson averaged 148 yards passing per game. The rookie quarterback shows promise as a future franchise quarterback but has yet to become a successful pocket passer in today’s league. The Ravens have had their offensive success running the football as they averaged 237 rushing yards in those three previous games.

It takes you back to the playoff game against Tennessee last year when Kansas City was facing a team that struggled to pass the ball effectively and made all of their money running the ball. Following that playoff game, GM Brett Veach decided that he wanted to bolster the defense with players that could better stop the run for the 2018 season. Players like Anthony Hitchens, Xavier Williams, Derrick Nnadi, Breeland Speaks, Dorian O’Daniel, and some others.

While we can sit here and argue whether or not Sutton has enough pieces to execute a successful defense, his scheme is making things even worse. Going into this Ravens game on Sunday, all of the focus should have been revolved around two things which are slowing down the running attack and giving Jackson looks he’s never seen. Instead, Sutton came out in his usual nickel set to start the game.

It wasn’t until the second quarter that we started seeing some bear front defense to help attack the running game. We also saw for most of the first half, the inside linebackers not having one assignment where they were able to attack instead of waiting for the ball to come to them. That’s not all, Sutton also decided to run with three safety sets much of the game including putting Ron Parker down by the line of scrimmage while keeping Daniel Sorensen as the last line of defense.

Which brings me to my point of Sutton being incapable of adjusting his defense to fit his personnel and why the Chiefs must move on from him this offseason. If Justin Houston doesn’t cause a strip sack at the end of regulation, it’s possible that we are talking about a loss. Sutton’s defense relies too heavily on timely turnovers when it lacks the turnover personnel.

We saw this defense look better in the fourth quarter when the changes were finally made. It’s clear that the defense can have success when given the opportunity to run the scheme in which attacks the weakness of the opposing offense. In the fourth quarter, Sutton got creative moving his players around the line of scrimmage including moving around his pass rushers. There were multiple plays where Houston lined up on the interior of the defensive line.

The game plan that should have been in place at the start of the game wasn’t in full effect until the last quarter of regulation. Instead, we saw the typical nonaggressive defense that we continue to see from Sutton during his time in Kansas City. The Chiefs defense is one of the most effective defenses when blitzing, yet we rarely see it. Why?

Kansas City will see a similar style of offense when they travel to Seattle in a couple of weeks which is a team that relies strongly on the running attack. Will Sutton gameplan better for the Seahawks to give this team a better shot at a victory? It’s not about him not making adjustments; it’s about Sutton making them too late.

It’s no secret to anyone that the Chiefs don’t have the best players to have a top defense in the league. I don’t think any of us are expecting that kind of performance from this group of players. We are asking that Sutton adjusts his scheme to get the best performance out of the talent that he does have. The players that were brought in this offseason are not players that generally fit Sutton’s scheme which brings the questions of whether Veach and Sutton are on the same page and whether or not Sutton will be here in 2019?