feh..so what...a sack is a sack.

All the indicators at this time point in the direction we are better. I realize everyone wants to wait until the Falcons (and Vick more precisely) and Colts games are in the books to form an opinion on if we are better or not. Will Vick hurt us, because we all saw what Plummer did? Will Manning rip us apart again. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say no ahead of time. My guess is defensive ends have been taught a thing or two since the Plummer debacle. And, as someone here earlier here said, we are getting "coverage sacks" :eek: I think we will contain Manning and force a few punts. The Jags did. I think we will too.

Exactly! I really believe that is the direction we are heading in too.

They way KC is getting called for illegal contact and PI, it really makes me nervous. At this point in the season, KC has been getting really ticky tack calls.

I think that's further evidence that they are becoming more comfortable within the defensive scheme marked by the good performances against good runners in the most previous 2 weeks. I'm hoping Atlanta comes to town still undefeated so the Chiefs can take the wind out of their sails.

huh? I'm referring to seeing guns scheme again. I never said they were or are going to be just like or as good as those defenses. They can't be.

Sure. But you can't compare this team to the 90s squads until a dominant, consistant threat emerges.

While getting sacks off blitzes, coverage, and line stunts are well and good, it's not a consistent, fear-inducing method found in dominant teams.

I'll be shocked if this team ends up in the top ten defensively. There are plenty of talent holes still in it. But a top 15 or top 20 defense certainly isn't out of the question. Should the offense and special teams return to form, that will be enough to make this squad extremely hard to beat. And that was the basis behind the Chiefs' strategy in the offseason anyway.

No doubt about it. The question is How much better? We were about the best in the league the last two weeks but we were about the worst the 1st two. If we play Jax like we played Balt we'll be a top 10 D regardless but we'll be the best in the league over a 3 game span. We've got some big test coming up but I think we'll do well on them.

PhilFree :arrow:

Im not comparing this team to the 90's. Getting sacks helps stop drives. I dont really care how it gets done, just get to the QB and put him down.

'domination' is relative and can be argued in infinite ways, but what KC did against the #1 rushing defense in the league was pretty damned good.

I agree on both counts. There are 119 pieces of information that indicate our run defense is significantly better. There are 2 pieces of data that says it is not. I'm going with the 119.

I hope the Falcons and Colts come into Arrowhead on win streaks. If we beat the Jags, Arrowhead will be rocking. And unlike the playoff game when GR sort of took the crowd out of the game (at least from my couch at home it sounded quieter as the game wore on. And it was GR not Manning as the Pats showed a week later), I expect the crowd to be rocking all game long.

Statistically, we were the worst after the first two weeks.

Toss out those two runs though, and we are 13th in overall yardage, and 5th in yards per attempt for 119 carries after 4 games. Those two runs are outliers in the data. We have to count them, but they really don't fit into the picture of what is happening.

Someone mentioned to me that the tackling was somewhat "shoddy" on one drive in the 4th Q where Baltimore got their TD. I can understand the "shoddy" tackling, especially in the 4th Q which lead to Lewis's only TD. Of course though, it was a determined Lewis, because he was pissed off the fact that he wasn't getting his carries. However, did you see the one clip where Lewis was at the sideline, trying to catch his breath, but for some reason, he couldn't? Looked like someone popped him good.

As for the limited carries, there's multiple ways of making that logic. You can say that KC's Offense kept them off of the field (the 8 min drive), the Raven's suspect playcalling. But the general rule is to shut down their best player, no matter what you have to do. They just did that by offense and defense.

Please don't post this way again (first paragraph about Jamal being pissed)

Here is the breakdown of all 121 carries...

3 carries for -4 yards
3 carries for -3
5 for -2
14 for -1
15 for 0
10 for 1
10 for 2
13 for 3
6 for 4
6 for 5
9 for 6
6 for 7
3 for 8
1 for 9
3 for 10
1 for 11
2 for 12
2 for 13
1 for 14
2 for 16
1 for 17
1 for 18
1 for 19
1 for 25
1 for 47
1 for 71


The mode is 0. A whopping 40 rushes were for no gain or less. Keep in mind sacks are not included in this total. It looks like we have 10 sacks on top of this for 64 more yards.

The median is 3. In fact, 72 of the 121 rushes have been for less than 3 yards. So I would think the median would be a better indicator of the performance of the defense than the mean of 4.4 that is inflated by the 47 and 71 yard runs.

Wow...REAL statistical analysis...what a concept...