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 DaneMcCloud:
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.
This right here. When you're 1-1 against a guy outside and have no immediate help AND have to determine if his route is going inside or out AND once he makes that move, you have to over-compensate to make sure he can't catch the ball. It's nearly impossible and, yet, a lot of guys do it really well. Honestly, it's why the good receivers get bracketed inside out. [Reply]
Wilson has played better this season than he did at just about any point last season. For 2020-2021, I'll take that. See about finding a replacement after the season is over.
KPass, well I hoped he'd keep improving, but unless I'm missing something, he isn't. He's okay, but not good; about average to maybe slightly worse than average, IMO. Almost feel like we would've been better off keeping Speaks. But that's water\bridge . . . [Reply]
Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla:
Well, KPass isn't getting lured away by a huge contract if he continues to play like this. I guess that's the good news.
I wonder if they'd try Wharton at his spot? I know Danna is out with an injury, but I'd sure like to have him back.
I would like to see Danna against Denver to see if he can set the edge.
The other thing I'll say is that if we had to, I think we could live with both Hitch and Wilson for another season at least. No, they aren't great, but they are serviceable and against most of the league they work just fine. I think some of us just miss having DJ running around back there. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
The other thing I'll say is that if we had to, I think we could live with both Hitch and Wilson for another season at least. No, they aren't great, but they are serviceable and against most of the league they work just fine. I think some of us just miss having DJ running around back there.
DJ was great for most of his career but even he had some down times. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
DJ was great for most of his career but even he had some down times.
Hell, I miss DJ, a lot. But he's gone, and we have to get used to what we have in front of us.
It's basically the same thing (for me; probably most Cards fans) when Ozzie Smith retired. We spent the next few seasons yelling at the TV every time one of the replacement SSs made a mistake "because the Oz would've made that play easily." It just took awhile to get used to Ozzie not being there. [Reply]