Defense Answers the Challenge

From the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum

It has been the most challenging season of his coaching career. When you’ve been in the business as long as Gunther Cunningham has been toiling in football, there are going to be some bad seasons.

The Chiefs record this season would make 2008 one of those seasons, but Cunningham doesn’t see it that way. The youthful talent that now populates his side of the ball provides a sense of hope and purpose, despite the losing. That’s challenged Cunningham to come up with new ways to teach his lessons, new ways to get across his message.

On Saturday in the team’s hotel on the other side of San Francisco Bay, the players and coaches were killing off the day with a walk-through practice and meetings. Gunther had a message for his defense, especially the guys on the defensive line that were not getting to the quarterback. The Chiefs are on pace to see a new NFL record for sack futility. Cunningham knows the numbers; he just doesn’t think it’s been that bad.

So in a hotel meeting room, the defensive coordinator threw up a highlight tape of the San Diego Chargers defense and especially its pass rush. The season was 1986 and that year the Chargers group led by DE Leslie O’Neal had 62 sacks as a team.

The players soaked up the chance to watch a really good defense go about his business. Cunningham and his assistant coaches pointed out moments on the tape where a Chargers defender was doing something the Chiefs staff were teaching.

When the tape ended and the lights were turned back on the players and coaches discussed what they had just seen. Cunningham asked the players what record they thought the Chargers finished that season with.

“They all guessed 13-3,” Cunningham said.

That San Diego team was 4-12.

“I was stunned when he told us that,” said safety Jarrad Page. “They were getting things done, they were successful and they played hard. They looked like a championship defense.”

But they were still one of the worst teams in the NFL that season.

“It really drove home the point that he’s been making to us all year, which is just keep working hard, keep believing in what you are doing,” said defensive head Tamba Hali. “Yes, it would be nice if you got rewarded for that on a weekly basis with a win, but if you don’t, you can’t chuck it all away.

“You just have to keep playing hard.”

The Chiefs defense has done that throughout the painful ’08 campaign. There have been painful moments, like the 332 yards rushing they allowed to Tennessee and the 300 yards on the ground that they gave up to Oakland the first time these teams met back in September. There have been games where they were in position to win and couldn’t get the defensive stop when it was needed most.

Success has been fleeting and not long lasting. A play here, a series there, sometimes a half of good defense would show itself, but then the mental mistakes, injuries and overall lack of talent would drown the good things.

That wasn’t the case on this Sunday. The Raiders totaled 271 yards of offense, with 139 of that in the running game. That’s the best overall defensive effort of the season. The first time these teams met Oakland had 355 yards with 300 in the running game. The 139 on this day did not make for a sterling performance, but 37 of those yards came from quarterback JaMarcus Russell.

Justin Fargas had 82 yards on 18 carries, but also had a big fumble. Rookie Darren McFadden, who ran for over 100 yards against the Chiefs back in September, ran for just 13 yards on seven carries.

“There was pride involved in this one,” said defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey. “That was a long time ago, but we haven’t forgotten what happened. We went out today to make sure we wrote a different story.”

The longest play of the day for the Raiders was a 28-yard completion from Russell to TE Zach Miller. But by the end of the game, Miller was nursing a headache because of the pounding he took from the Chiefs secondary. Several times Miller had passes in his hands and dropped them after taking a hit from Page, LB Derrick Johnson and CB Brandon Flowers,

The game ended without the Chiefs getting a sack of Russell. They still have six sacks and 12 games are gone. They’ve been shutout for the last three games.

On this day, Gunther Cunningham didn’t care.

“It’s a process that we are going through with these kids and they are working so hard, they are getting better and better,” Cunningham said. “Let people know, there’s something happening here. Kansas City football fans are going to be very happy.”