Can the Chiefs correct early season issues against Ravens?

Comparing the Chargers and Ravens defenses

One subject pointed out during the broadcast in Week 2 was that teams that can generate pressure with four rushers tend to do well against Kansas City. To take that a step further, teams that play man coverage at a high level or take away the deep areas of the field also give the Chiefs offense trouble.

We saw this against the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl. The Niners had the best defensive line in the league in 2019 and played primarily Cover 3 with physicality, which proved to slow down the Chiefs offense for most of the game. The same thing was seen against the Chargers with a top-tier defensive line and a scheme that took away deeper portions of the field. Los Angeles was consistently able to get pressure while dropping seven or eight players into coverage.

Kansas City’s offense has to adjust to this style of defense if they want to win their next two games. Instead of trying to throw into those intermediate to deep portions of the field, Mahomes must take what the defense gives and call plays that exploit the shorter passes. Against the Chargers, the Chiefs offense was still trying to attack the areas the defense was devoting their coverage around. Quick-hitting pass plays should have been more involved considering the coverage and how quickly pass rushers could get after Mahomes.

The difference with Baltimore is that instead of sending the traditional four defensive linemen after the quarterback to get pressure, the Ravens are one of the most aggressive teams when it comes to blitzing. In 2019, the Ravens led the league by a large number in blitz percentages at 54.9 percent. Lining additional defenders on the line of scrimmage to confuse the quarterback is their specialty not to allow the quarterback to know where the pressure will come from pre-snap.

Another aspect that makes the Ravens defense so effective is their ability to mix coverages and fronts, instead of sticking to one or two types of coverage. It’s something that Steve Spagnuolo has done to improve the defense in Kansas City. The good thing is that by sending additional pass rushers, it leaves more room for receivers to get open quickly. Attacking those shallow areas will be key again this week.

Travis Kelce should see a high volume of targets over the middle again. Drafting linebacker Patrick Queen has boosted their second level of the defense, but the rookie has struggled in coverage through two weeks. Without Earl Thomas at free safety, that becomes an even bigger advantage over the middle.

Baltimore has also added more stunts and twists to their rush packages this season, which has worked surprisingly well, given the number of additions to the front this offseason. The offensive line will be a focal point on how the game will go as they have struggled against stunts over the last couple of years.