Offensive line, secondary hold keys to Chiefs’ success against Bills

Pass rush must get after Allen

The entire pass rush was MIA in the Chiefs loss to the Raiders on Sunday. Derek Carr was incredibly comfortable in the pocket and was able to wait on plays to develop the entire afternoon, or in the case of Henry Ruggs, to wait until he burned another member of the Kansas City secondary.

The Chiefs have a solid corps of players in the secondary, but they’re not elite cover men. They will not survive shutting down good receivers for four, five, six seconds at a time. They’re not built to do that and nothing about their skill sets or scheme design suggests that is the goal.

Instead, Kansas City has invested nearly $200 million into two All-Pro caliber pass rushers in order to ease the burden on the back end of the defense. Chris Jones and Frank Clark played some of the worst games of their careers on Sunday. Unfortunately they came at the same time; fortunately there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Sunday was an aberration.

If the Chiefs are going to come out on top, and reclaim the top seed in the AFC Playoff race, it will require a strong, consistent presence in the backfield from Jones, Clark and the rest of the Chiefs pass rushers.

For what it’s worth, Taco Charlton has the best pressure rate (over 23%) of all Chiefs’ pass rushers. Perhaps it’s time he gets more than eleven  snaps in a game?