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 jjchieffan:
That is impressive. Although I still can't believe that they gave up 40 to the friggin Carr led Faiders! He hasn't put that much up in 2 games most years.
It was pretty clear that we didn't think Carr could or would take those shots.
He did, and had a good day. Hats off to them. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ChiefsFanatic:
I am not a fan of Ward, like other here. I think he is just slightly above average
And that's all a defense needs to be competitive.
Playing CB in the NFL just might be the most difficult position in all of sports.
Not only do those guys need to be "mind readers", they need to be extremely athletic, quick and ridiculously football smart while simultaneously defending passes coming at them at light speed, all the while avoiding contact with said receiver in order to disrupt the receiver from making a catch, in about 4 seconds or less.
Average is just fine and Above Average is fantastic. [Reply]
Wilson played very well when the defensive line was doing its job the other night. No LB is going to play consistently good with a linemen on him 1:1 in the 2nd level of the defense. [Reply]
Originally Posted by jjchieffan:
That is impressive. Although I still can't believe that they gave up 40 to the friggin Carr led Faiders! He hasn't put that much up in 2 games most years.
Spags obviously prepared for that game to be about the ultra short passing game and Carr/Gruden came out firing deep consistently and we never adjusted.
We will be ready for that shit sandwich next time. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
Wilson played very well when the defensive line was doing its job the other night. No LB is going to play consistently good with a linemen on him 1:1 in the 2nd level of the defense.
Originally Posted by Detoxing:
I fucking loathe the pre-fix "Late Night Bullshit".
"I know this idea is stupid but, hear me out.."
When that thread initially began back in the mid-2000's, the "Bullshit" part wasn't about football per se, but ANY topic anyone wanted to talk about, hence "bullshit".
Direckshun has turned it into his own little laboratory of nonsense. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ChiefsFanatic:
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.
I think corner is just somewhere that I don't want superstar and trash, I want a group of average to above average guys, that's how you build an effective pass defense.
Having one lock down guy on the boundary in itself doesn't mean anything, if you can just pass away from him, or move your best receiver into the slot, or scheme some space away from that lockdown guy.
Originally Posted by Chris Meck:
We were down to like...fourth string DE.
It was on a sloppy wet field in the snow.
I don't really understand why anyone would judge too harshly under the circumstances.
We had difficulty with the Counter TAG or the Counter TATE... I shared this multiple times in the game thread. If the walk up linebacker goes unblocked, many times they are told to slam the gap and look for a trapper. We either weren't ready for this, had a scheme for this to be filled by someone else, or we weren't playing responsibility football. We got better as the game progressed but it was far from perfect. [Reply]
