It's no mystery the Chiefs linebacking corps leaves a lot to be desired. We got some nice play out of Gay at Will this past game, and Hitchens has been passable more often than he's not.
But I'm rewatching the Broncos game, and the Broncos essentially run the same play like 8 times in the 2nd quarter, and it's a big gainer every time. Like, every time.
They pull a guard or tackle from the left side and run them to the right. The RB takes the handoff and fakes the run to the inside before cutting it wide to the right and following at least one, if not two blockers over the right side. Wilson played that side all quarter, and never made a single play once. He was washed out by a blocker every single time in that quarter.
He wasn't helped by the DE play. My guy, Demone Harris, was abominable. He was consistently blocked out of plays by tight ends. Kpass wasn't much better, giving up push almost every time. One time, they ran the play when Clark manned that side, and even Clark bit too far inside and was unable to get outside, leaving Wilson alone to be erased by the blocker.
This defense has several issues: lack of an edgerush, corners that may have regressed from the postseason highs of last year, and a scheme that allows the MLB to be a sideline-to-sideline roamer... which we're wasting on Hitchens.
But Wilson may not be passable at this point, which we may see whenever we play a capable offense again willing to run right at him for entire quarters. He's a good player if there's no blockers to slip, but he simply can't get off blocks.
Originally Posted by Direckshun:
It's no mystery the Chiefs linebacking corps leaves a lot to be desired. We got some nice play out of Gay at Will this past game, and Hitchens has been passable more often than he's not.
But I'm rewatching the Broncos game, and the Broncos essentially run the same play like 8 times in the 2nd quarter, and it's a big gainer every time. Like, every time.
They pull a guard or tackle from the left side and run them to the right. The RB takes the handoff and fakes the run to the inside before cutting it wide to the right and following at least one, if not two blockers over the right side. Wilson played that side all quarter, and never made a single play once. He was washed out by a blocker every single time in that quarter.
He wasn't helped by the DE play. My guy, Demone Harris, was abominable. He was consistently blocked out of plays by tight ends. Kpass wasn't much better, giving up push almost every time. One time, they ran the play when Clark manned that side, and even Clark bit too far inside and was unable to get outside, leaving Wilson alone to be erased by the blocker.
This defense has several issues: lack of an edgerush, corners that may have regressed from the postseason highs of last year, and a scheme that allows the MLB to be a sideline-to-sideline roamer... which we're wasting on Hitchens.
But Wilson may not be passable at this point, which we may see whenever we play a capable offense again willing to run right at him for entire quarters. He's a good player if there's no blockers to slip, but he simply can't get off blocks.
Thoughts.
Our defensive ends, including Clark, are generally undisciplined when come to setting the edge. It doesn't even take a hard fake either. I understand that they may see something in the alignment from the film that leads them to anticipate a certain play, but we have given up more than one goal line TD this year because the DE crashed down the line instead of staying home.
I think that both the Gregg Robinson and Romeo Crennel defenses had this same problem. Maybe Spags has asked them to do something other than setting the edge, I don't know. But, if you watch the all-22, you can see how we seem to give up chunk play after chunk play on runs that the running back runs right through where the DE should be.
I wish I had time to create GIFS, because it would be easy to show examples.
I don't really see him as a problem. Could it be better, of course. We miss Derrick Johnson absolutely. That guy was incredible. I'm also not going to fret about Damien Wilson right now. I think he's ok until we have a reason for him to not be ok. A problem? No. [Reply]
Gay was all over the field making plays, but I agree, Wilson and occasionally Niemann are lost too much of the time. Hitch is hitch and that's a bitch. One outta four ain't bad. Hard to find good lbs when you're playing nickel d most of the time. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Direckshun:
This defense has several issues: lack of an edgerush, corners that may have regressed from the postseason highs of last year, and a scheme that allows the MLB to be a sideline-to-sideline roamer... which we're wasting on Hitchens.
So the CB group have regressed, there are issues on the D line and the LBs continue to be garbage. So this must be like, one of the worst defenses in the NFL right? right? [Reply]
Originally Posted by Chargem:
So the CB group have regressed, there are issues on the D line and the LBs continue to be garbage. So this must be like, one of the worst defenses in the NFL right? right?
We are #3 in the NFL in passing yards allowed but yet our CBs suck um wtf?? [Reply]
Originally Posted by Chargem:
So the CB group have regressed, there are issues on the D line and the LBs continue to be garbage. So this must be like, one of the worst defenses in the NFL right? right?
I am not a fan of Ward, like other here. I think he is just slightly above average, because he seems to give up catches when he is standing right next to the receivers. He doesn't seem to be able to play the man and the ball at the same time. But, he is probably better than I think he is. However, he has been playing with a broken hand.
And Breeland missed the first 4 games due to suspension. Then Sneed, who was having a very good start to the season and his career, went down with an injury.
But, overall, the entire secondary is playing pretty damn good football.
The defensive unit that is hurting us the most is the linebackers. Hopefully, Gay pans out, and can be a cornerstone of a LB rebuild starting in the off-season.
And we played the other 3 division winners right off the bat too. Some talking heads are saying that our remaining schedule is easy, but we have already been through the tough part.