Chiefs vs. Jets: Sorting out the winners and losers from Week 8
By Matt Conner
Let’s sort out some of the winners and losers from the Chiefs win over the Jets in Week 8.
It sounds a bit weird to discuss both winners and losers from a game in which the Kansas City Chiefs put away their opponents by more than 25 points. Given the dominance on both sides of the ball—along with some wonderful special teams successes—are we really allowed to point to anything as a “loser”? Yeah, we agree. It’s tough.
That said, there are always ups and down to any performance and some of the storylines coming into today’s game turned out to be much ado about nothing. And when it comes to winners, well, it’s hard to narrow them down.
Here’s a look at some winners and losers from a not-so-obvious perspective from the Chiefs dominant win over the jets in Week 8.
Winner: Chiefs run defense
The Chiefs came into Week 8 against the Jets ranked 31st overall against the run per DVOA, according to Football Outsiders. The eye test told us the same. Even in dominant wins over the likes of the Denver Broncos, it was still a common sight to see Phillip Lindsay or Melvin Gordon running at will through the Chiefs defense with players taking poor angles or just letting opposing rushers slip through their grasp.
Through 7 games, the Chiefs ranked fourth worst with 4.9 yards/carry allowed on the year, and their 65 first downs allowed via the run game was second worst only to the Dallas Cowboys.
On Sunday, the Jets had to hope that the run game would allow them to slow the tempo enough to stay in the game longer than expected. Credit the Chiefs defense for coming through with a dominant effort against the pass and the run.
Frank Gore finished with 30 rushing yards on 10 carries to lead the Jets run game. La’Mical Perine had 27 more yards on 8 carries. Ty Johnson had the best average of 5 yards/carry but that was only on three attempts.
On the whole, the Jets’ longest run from scrimmage was only 9 yards and they finished with 25 carries for 93 rushing yards, good for a pitiful 3.7 yards/carry. That’s more than a full yard less that what the Chiefs were giving up and they can carry that momentum forward into the season’s second half.