5 convincing reasons to believe the Chiefs defense is Super Bowl-ready

4. The Chiefs have a dominant pass rush

While coverage is an essential part of a great pass defense, if the opposing quarterback has enough time in the pocket he can almost always find someone open eventually. That is where a good pass rush comes in. Thankfully, the Chiefs pass rush is equally up for the task.

Chris Jones is widely viewed as one of the top interior pass rushers in the league He dominates talk of the Chiefs pass rush, and he is certainly good enough to warrant such attention. However, it isn't just Jones this season. When you combine Jones with the emergence of George Karlaftis, the arrival of Charles Omenihu, and the blitz packages of Steve Spagnuolo, opposing quarterbacks should be losing sleep at night.

Jones ended the regular season with 10.5 sacks and added another half-sack against the Dolphins on Saturday. Karlaftis also had 10.5 sacks in the regular season and he added 1.5 sacks to that total against Miami, which means he leads the Chiefs in sacks this season. Omenihu had 7 sacks in 11 games after returning from his early season suspension. That's a pace of 10.8 sacks over 17 games. That gives K.C. three players up front who averaged double-digit sacks when they played this season. If you mix in Mike Danna, who had 6.5 of his own, and you have 34.5 sacks from the team's top four up front alone. The Carolina Panthers only had 27 sacks total as a team this season.

The Chiefs finished second in team sacks this season with 57. While a big part of that was the four players listed above, Spagnuolo's blitz packages were also a massive reason for their success. The Chiefs had 9 sacks by defensive backs this season and another 8.5 by off-ball linebackers. That's at least 17.5 sacks you can attribute to Spags sending blitzes. This combination of a successful four-man pass rush AND successful blitz packages paired with arguably the best cornerback duo in the NFL makes KC's pass defense an absolute nightmare for opposing offenses.

The final reason I believe the Chiefs defense can carry them to a Super Bowl isn't actually about the defense at all.