Chiefs defense- is there an elixir?

[CKS97]

Am I the only one who thinks the coordinator is at fault and a change could help?

they DO have a good pass rush. Eric Berry potentially returning can’t make things worse.

Is this basically last year’s Steelers? Are they THAT unsalvageable?

[3rivers]

They had some injuries to deal with but are getting healthy at the right time. The DC could be at fault,  but I think they made a mistake letting Peters go unless Peters was out of control .  Houston, Ford and Jones will be able to get pressure against anyone. 

[evilpimp972]

17 minutes ago, 3rivers said:

They had some injuries to deal with but are getting healthy at the right time. The DC could be at fault,  but I think they made a mistake letting Peters go unless Peters was out of control .  Houston, Ford and Jones will be able to get pressure against anyone. 

Lol Peters isn't that good.

[3rivers]

Just now, evilpimp972 said:

Lol Peters isn't that good.

He was good in the Chiefs D, at least got TO's which helps.  

[Jakuvious]

So, our defense actually has gotten better as the year has gone on, for what it's worth. Some of our bulk stats on D look horrendous, in part due to how fast scoring our offense is. We're like 20th or so in yards per play against, we're actually 12th in net yards per pass attempt against. We're still a top 10 D on third down. Some of the bulk just looks worse because we've had a crazy amount of plays run against us, with a disproportionate amount being pass plays as teams either play catch up or try to keep up with us. As the season has gone on though, we've evened out to being a little below average, not horrible, as we looked to start. Getting LAC, NE, and PIT in our first 6 games didn't help our early rankings either.

There are definite problems with our D, though, some coaching, some personnel. Our run defense is horrible, and that's been a Sutton issue for years here. I don't think we've ever had a strong run D under him. But our biggest roster issues are really inside on the back 7. Our corners have played much better than the stats imply. Even in a game like ours against LAR, some of the TDs Scandrick was giving up were actually good coverage. Our big coverage issues are at ILB and S. S is some bad luck, largely. Berry hurt. Sorensen hurt. Watts hurt. Murray missed about a game and a half. So there was one point where our top 4 safeties were all out. And there's good reason we tried to move on from Ron Parker. But we're starting to get healthy there, which will help. ILB I think is a coaching issue. Hitchens has massively underperformed for seemingly no reason, Smith and Ragland were asked to do too much, and Sutton has been far too reluctant to play Dorian O'Daniel who has looked fantastic covering RBs out of the backfield when they've actually given him playing time, and that skill (covering RBs) is what we've missed most from DJ leaving.

The one thing that could really turn the defense around though is if we get our red zone performance in line. Historically under Sutton, whether our defense was great, like from 2013 - 2016, or bad, like last year, is we've been a good situational defense. Good on 3rd down. Good on short yardage. Good in the red zone. This year that holds true, except we're near the bottom of the league in the red zone. If that gets fixed, and Berry is a guy who could certainly help that, we could get back to a situation where our defense is good enough in a bend but don't break style to not hold us back to hard. That's really where the scoring discrepancy between last year and this year lies, IMO. 

35 minutes ago, 3rivers said:

They had some injuries to deal with but are getting healthy at the right time. The DC could be at fault,  but I think they made a mistake letting Peters go unless Peters was out of control .  Houston, Ford and Jones will be able to get pressure against anyone. 

We were a bottom 5 defense in the NFL last year, with Peters. Losing him is not the problem, and having him around still would not solve the issues we have either. We were actually a worse defense in several ways last year than this year.

[CKS97]

Is this Chiefs defense worse than the ones that submarined Vermeil’s offense (2002-2005, they were putting up points at a similar clip to this team)?

[riceman80]

3 things really that i see, 2 of which simply take time to work out...

1. Injuries have been bad and Berry is a huge loss.

2. Turnover rate leading to alot of inexperience, youth, and unfamiliar faces. This is a team that lost Bennie Logan, Hali, DJ, Peters, Terrance Mitchell, Phillip Gaines, and Revis all in less than a year. Those losses were in addition covered with a draft that went entirely defense.

3. The talent overall is lacking. The secondary is a glaring problem without Berry. They do have some pieces tho. I like Nelson, Berry will be a big boost when he gets back, ive liked DOD when he's on the field, Speaks has flashed some, and theyve got a great stable of passrushers. Sorenson has also only been back for a couple games.

I dont expect all this make them a good defense but with their offense and special teams it could be good enough.

[riceman80]

Just now, CKS97 said:

Is this Chiefs defense worse than the ones that submarined Vermeil’s offense (2002-2005, they were putting up points at a similar clip to this team)?

I'll leave a Chiefs fan to answer this but this offense is better imo. The skill positions are at the least even talent-wise. Big thing is that while Trent Green was good, he wasn't on Mahomes level at all.

[3rivers]

If you can score 40 points, then your D only needs to allow 39 points. It's the nfl today, so it could be said the best defence is a better offence  I am trying to get used to this

[blizofoz45]

If defense were a tradeable stock I would have sold off any shares I had left after the last superbowl.  

The ridiculousness of the Eagles playcalling all because Tom Brady only needs enough time to complete 3 passes before the Patriots are lining up for a PAT told me everything I needed to know about defense in today’s game.

All the hubub over Peters and Mack in the offseason seemed way overblown to me.

[Buckweath]

People have to realize that the Chiefs are 2nd in the NFL in points differential. It might seem like the offense is scoring tons of points and the defense is giving just as much but really it is not the case.

The passrush is really good. The CBs are good.

Ragland and Hitchens have been a massivement disappointment. 

The safeties, without Berry, are just bad. Ron Parker is really poor. Eric Murray would be OK if paired with a top safety like Berry.

But overall, this is not a bad defense at all if not for the fact that they get the "pressure" of playing with a terrific offense. It is a bit the same with the Rams.

[Chiefer]

Hopefully Berry since he's reportedly coming back this week...maybe

[theJ]

6 hours ago, Buckweath said:

People have to realize that the Chiefs are 2nd in the NFL in points differential. It might seem like the offense is scoring tons of points and the defense is giving just as much but really it is not the case.

The passrush is really good. The CBs are good.

Ragland and Hitchens have been a massivement disappointment. 

The safeties, without Berry, are just bad. Ron Parker is really poor. Eric Murray would be OK if paired with a top safety like Berry.

But overall, this is not a bad defense at all if not for the fact that they get the "pressure" of playing with a terrific offense. It is a bit the same with the Rams.

Correct.  Both teams are generating a ton of turnovers.  Even if they're up giving up a bunch of yards, the defense is doing it's job.  

This is the modern NFL.

[Nabbs4u]

9 hours ago, 3rivers said:

If you can score 40 points, then your D only needs to allow 39 points. It's the nfl today, so it could be said the best defence is a better offence  I am trying to get used to this

Pretty much describes last year's SB and that was with teams who had good Defenses.

[Leoric]

Dissenting opinion here. The Chiefs defense isn’t bad. A bad defense doesn’t help a team have the second highest point differential in the league. Reid is a top tier coach and for the first time in his career has a Ferrari at QB when he usually gets by with a Camry. 

 

Defense has inflated stats because teams are constantly behind the Chiefs and getting garbage time stats. Chiefs are the best chance of someone not named New England representing the AFC in the Super Bowl.