Defense Sets Ugly Record In Defeat
From Arrowhead Stadium
On Sunday against the Tennessee Titans, Chiefs defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham moved from the coaching booth to the sidelines.
The idea was to have the chance to talk directly to his players and make adjustments in a faster, more concise manner.
Gun may consider going back to the press box level after what happened against the Titans.
The Chiefs defense cemented its status as the worst run unit in the league by giving up 332 rushing yards in losing to Tennessee.
Some would say that 146 of those yards came on two long touchdown runs in the fourth quarter with the game already decided. That still doesn’t explain the other 186 yards.
Those 332 yards were a franchise record total for the Titans, topping the 296 yards that the Houston Oilers gained against the Chiefs on November 27, 1977 at the Astrodome.
It was also a franchise record for the Chiefs, as in most rushing yards ever allowed in a single game. The performance broke the previous record of 330 yards gained by the Pittsburgh Steelers on November 7, 1976.
Consider those Chiefs defenses, of 1976 and 1977. In the history of the franchise, they are among the worst defensive units ever fielded.
The ‘77 defense allowed 2,971 yards rushing. The ‘76 defense allowed 2,861 yards rushing. The ‘75 defense allowed 2,712 yards rushing. All of those totals came in 14 games.
Right now, the Chiefs defense is on a pace where it will allow 3,120 yards in 16 games. They are on a pace to allow 2,730 yards in 14 games.
Right now, the Chiefs defense looks lost against the run. What makes it especially aggravating was the fact the Titans didn’t do anything special or out of the ordinary. They played most of the game with two tight ends and two backs. They used that power formation and embarrassed the Chiefs, dominating them along the line of scrimmage.
“It’s not a good look; we are trying to be a better defense,” said LB Derrick Johnson. “The two runs towards the end, that’s almost like giving up. Looks like it.”
It sure did. This defense works its tail off during the week. Cunningham has been driving them hard, working on fundamentals and scaling back a lot of what he would like to do.
“We work hard, we work our tails off during the week,” said Johnson. “To give up the stuff we gave up today, it’s beyond me. It’s hard to work like we do every week and then give up something like that.”
Johnson was asked if the defense is too difficult for the players to play.
“Not at all,” said Johnson. “We can’t blame that.”
Something is not connecting. There are problems in the level of talent, especially at linebacker. But that does not explain how this defense can be so bad against the run. Tennessee finished with 40 running plays. Take the last two off, since QB Kerry Collins took a knee twice for minus-two yards.
So in actually, the Chiefs gave up 334 yards on 38 carries. That’s 8.8 yards per carry.
Of those 38 rushing plays, only three went for negative yardage, a total of minus-12 yards.
So that’s 35 positive rushing plays for 346 yards. That’s an average of 9.9 yards per run.
Of those 35 positive plays, six were held to two yards or less, for a total of 11 yards.
So that’s 29 rushes that went for 335 yards. That’s an average of 11.6 yards.
We’ll stop there.
“The offense didn’t run any complicated plays,” said Johnson. “They were regular downhill plays. Crease here, crease there, and we are looking at the backside of them.”
They got their backsides handed to them, in a manner that Chiefs defenses haven’t seen in over 30 years.
Either Gunther has lost the ability to coach or the players are not listening.
Just another thought (quit laughing) What if herm convinces clark to rebuild with no veteran except for the few left on the team? Clark agrees and says take a few years to do it. Somehow this message has made it to the players. The 2008 season is given up and try not to get hurt for 2009, the owner says so. There is no need to worry and produce 2008 is free. Probably all this is caused by the trilateral commission, but what if?
Without a doubt the most maddening aspect of this year is the play of the defensive line. I thought that Dorsey would offset the loss of Allen. I figure he would be a penetrator and disrupt the passer, although it was clear that he was not an elite pass rusher. We have a young line and have veteran presence at tackle. I don’t know who is to blame… I do know this (regardless of record) that unless there is a dramatic turnaround, this will go down as the worst Chief’s team ever.
Secondly
I don’t know why, but Gunther’s coaching of the linebackers has backfired.
I believe that Herm and Carl grossly underestimated their talent level this offseason. While there is justification for being selective in free agency, they were virtually nonexistent. They should have known they needed a pass rusher as well as a wide receiver.
Yeah but look at the bright side, we ditched that loser Allen, and locked up LJ long term!
Barf.
I remember when Neil Smith came in as a rookie and struggled incredibly. He had the same kind of expectations that came with Dorsey. He turned out fine and was an anchor for many years on one of the best defenses in football. It will come, but the error was in expecting all these rookies to come in and play winning football immediately. That virtually never happens and especially when you have one out of 3 linebackers with high-draft-pick talent.
Additionally, we’ll never see consistency on offense when it doesn’t come from the quarterback position. If we don’t fix that, we will continue to wallow. It’s inexcusable that we didn’t get a veteran who can play (Kerry Collins is a great example) in a winning fashion consistently, even if Brody was the guy. You can’t bet an entire season on a guy who can’t finish a game, much less a season. I know there weren’t many out there this year, but it has to be a priority next year even if we draft a quarterback in the first round.