Hard to judge the defense as we haven't had a series or possession where we absolutely NEEDED a stop to get back into the game, preserve the lead or put the game away. The defense all throughout the early parts of our season has had the luxury will playing with a huge lead.
I will give them props that they have gotten a few early stops in each game which has lead Mahomes and company the opportunity to get off to a hot start. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
We did it against the Chargers. One of their 2nd half drives took 8 minutes. That's exactly what we wanted because even though they closed the gap, there wasn't actually enough time left for them to tie or get ahead.
Worked yesterday too. One of their final drives, IIRC it was the one that they got the OPI, took them like 7 minutes.
It was partially their fault because they came out run heavy, but still.. [Reply]
I will reiterate - if we'd have done in the Colts playoff game what we've done in these last few games defensively, we'd have won. The defense doesn't look good, but it's played very well for a quarter or even two at a time before trying to bleed clock.
Say you don't like it, but it's getting wins. And when they can hold the Steelers to 1 true offensive TD in the 2nd half last week (Conley's fumble game them a 2nd) and throttled the 49ers through the first this week, we know there is a gear there.
My real question though is talent based - are they faster? And I don't mean play speed - I mean pure athleticism; is this a faster team than last season's squad?
You look at the replacements and you have to say yes, right? DJ replaced by Hitchens, Zombo replaced by Ford, Peters replaced by Fuller and Sorenson replaced by Murray. The rest are largely reshuffled deck chairs but the same guys, right?
Give back a bit from Houston if you'd like and you'd still have to concede that team speed is better, right? And that was easily our biggest problem to me last season.
So if the athleticism is improved, wouldn't it stand to reason that we'd see performance improve with reps? Maybe not with Murray because man, he looks completely unaware out there. But I have to think we have some untapped ceiling here when these guys just get more accustomed to playing together.
I refuse to believe this defense is truly this bad. There's talent out there but play after play after play, they have a serious breakdown. That's a familiarity issue. [Reply]
I could buy that it's an issue with a few players being familiar with the scheme if these were new players having problems that were suddenly appearing at the start of this season, but they aren't. These are players who should know the system inside and out by now, they just aren't good enough. When a guy continually blows his assignments and misses tackles the way Murray does for example it's not a teachable moment. He's just not good enough for the role he's in.
The defense has been declining for a few years now. For the previous two years they got worse and worse in yards allowed, and now the turnovers have dried up so they are completely exposed. The team either hasn't recognized what's going on or they have and have failed to address it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
They have 7 new starters on D this year. I'd say they recognized it and addressed it.
Whether it's worked is obvious
I guess we got spoiled by the 2013 'turnaround'?
We did some serious defensive overhauling and it paid pretty significant dividends pretty quickly. But maybe we just underestimated just how much change was happening to this squad.
The 2013 team made some additions but I guess its core group was largely unchanged as they aged into their primes. So what seemed like a true rebuild wasn't quite as drastic as it seemed. And now this one is.
Because these guys really don't seem to have any idea how to play with each other. It's like watching a rec team try to play zone defense for flag football. There's just no synergy out there and they're constantly stepping on each other's zones (and leaving their own exposed).
Reps have to help....don't they? The personnel has been brought up to average to maybe slightly below. It's better than its performance by a fair amount, IMO. It has to be a rep issue. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
I guess we got spoiled by the 2013 'turnaround'?
We did some serious defensive overhauling and it paid pretty significant dividends pretty quickly. But maybe we just underestimated just how much change was happening to this squad.
The 2013 team made some additions but I guess its core group was largely unchanged as they aged into their primes. So what seemed like a true rebuild wasn't quite as drastic as it seemed. And now this one is.
Because these guys really don't seem to have any idea how to play with each other. It's like watching a rec team try to play zone defense for flag football. There's just no synergy out there and they're constantly stepping on each other's zones (and leaving their own exposed).
Reps have to help....don't they? The personnel has been brought up to average to maybe slightly below. It's better than its performance by a fair amount, IMO. It has to be a rep issue.
I dunno man. I got crapped on all preseason by talking about how practicing and playing matter so I'm probably not the one to talk to about it. [Reply]
We have not been behind one time in our first three games. We have not had the ball first in any of those 3 games. The defense has stopped all three teams on their first offensive possession. The defense has played fairly well in the first quarter or even first half. The 3rd quarter and really the entire 2cd half of games they have struggled.
We are not playing complimentary football. It is awesome to be able to score so fast and especially as much as we have been. Scoring so fast though has put the defense on the field for a lot of time especially in the 2cd half of games. Right now our average time of possession is 23:24. Leaving the defense on the field for that amount of time gasses the players on D. [Reply]
Just like last week, Nelson doesn't pass off the vertical route to the safety in C3. Garcon runs a dig just behind the underneath zone defenders, who expect over the top help. Garoppolo missed the throw.
Eric Murray has allowed 8 rec. of 11 targets (73% catch rate) for 125 yards and 1 touchdown. Last year he allowed 25 of 41 (61%). He also has 3 missed tackles in 3 games after missing 3 tackles ALL of last season. He played in 100% of snaps on Sunday. #Chiefs
Is there any chance Andy would can Sutton during the season? He must be getting tired of defense getting ran over when the offense is killing it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Red Dawg:
Is there any chance Andy would can Sutton during the season? He must be getting tired of defense getting ran over when the offense is killing it.
Just a theory of mine, but I wonder if the offense is killing it at the expense of the defense. During training camp, Reid stated several times they were having the defense throw ervrything but the kitchen sink at Mahomes so Mahomes could learn. Maybe they are just starting to settle in on running our own stuff since camp got over. The first halves of games have been decent. Games have been over at that point. [Reply]
If Case Keenum kicks the defense ass then Sutton should be handed his walking papers. He's not very good. We faced 3 that are so I can understand being short handed and having some struggles. Keenum is average at best. We should stop him plenty and win the game. [Reply]
