A look at the improvement in the rushing defense.
 

Last year, after two games our rushing defense was first in the NFL allowing just over 60 yards a game. That was against San Diego and Pittsburgh. It seemed like the rushing defense was looking up at that point, and we all saw where it headded and we ended up. Pretty much at the bottom of the heap.

Enter Gun, and his "take away their heart by stopping the run" philosophy. The stats are starting to bear out that Gun is living up to what he promised.

After two games this year, we were right at dead last in rushing defense and yards per attempt. Now, after 4 games, we have climbed to 25th in rushing defense, and 20th in yards per attempt.

And I realize stats can be minipulated to do just about anything, but a couple of interesting things show up if you take out 2 runs.

In terms of stats, those two runs are starting to look like outliers. There are 121 pieces of data that can be analized at this point. In those 121 pieces, we have given up 531 yards for a 4.4 average.

Without those two runs (47 by QG from Denver and 71 to Foster from Carolina), there would be 119 pieces of data to look at. On those 119, we have given up 413 yards, which would rand us at 13th in the league vs the rush, and 3.5 yards per attempt which would rank us 5th.

I realize you can not throw out those two attempts, and I know I am basing my results off of "mean" only statistical analysis, but those two runs look to be outliers after 4 games worth of data.

It looks as if Gun really is taking away the run after being dead last after two weeks, and GR really wasn't taking away the run after being ranked 1st after two weeks.

We are only 1-3, but I have faith now that we may be on to something that could turn out better than 13-3 and an early playoff exit.

If I remember right, both long runs were a result of breakdowns within the scheme, not necessarily guys doing things physically wrong like missing tackles. In the last two games guys are obviously more comfortable within the scheme, most notably the D-Line (Dalton especially) and Monty. In the Ravens game I think Jamal Lewis only had 2 longish runs. The first one was just a nice playcall with the misdirection pitch with our D collapsing to the middle and the other run was late in the game. There definitely are signs of improvement all over the place and it will be real interesting how we do against Jacksonville because they are definitely not a great offensive team.

Right on schedule...
 

I'd like to see improvement in the third down defense. They were able to get off the field Monday, but this defense has given up a number of 2nd and long and third and long pass plays. Personally, I like to see a better pass rush. Not too many sacks this year have been of the quick, beat-your-man-off-the-ball sort. Most, if not all, have been coverage sacks.

Help a brother out?
 

People boo-hoo the zone coverage in the NFL, but it has its place. I'm not sure that's the reason for the conversion percentage being as high as it is. It's getting to the point that I'd rather see an opposing team facing 3rd and 1 instead of 3rd and 9.

The prevent defense that teams play at the end of the game is ridiculed by fans, mainly due to a few instances in which it didn't work. But more times than not, it does work, but that isn't an anomoly that people remember.

I'd say it's been even worse, it looks like they've been running almost a prevent on 3rd and 10 or more. During the Ravens game, I believe in the first half, they had a 3rd and about 18. They threw about an 8 yard pattern to the tight end who literally had 10 yards of open field ahead of him. Luckily, Woods or Wesley put a hit on him at about the 17.5 yard mark and he barely missed the first down.

The Texans offense ranks 11th overall. Carolina 13th. Denver 14th. And Baltimore is 25th. I'll check out their rushing rank in a minute and report back.

In the mean time, the offenses we have faced seem to be stellar. And I am sure that ever other team in the NFL has not played the Colts every single game.

I'm not ready to blame the improvement on the defense on the ineptitud of the opponent.

OK, the 4 teams we have faced have interesting rankings in offensive rushing. The two we have faired the best against were Baltimore, ranked 4th overall and Houston ranked 12th overall. The two we did the worst against has Denver at 18th (keep in mind they have a 47 yarder in that ranking against us), and Carolina at 25th (and they have a 71 yarder against us to boost their ranking).

I think our rushing defense is legit.

when the Chiefs are playing well. it's always in spite of themselves, yet when they play bad, it's legitimate. my favorite are dante's returns are luck, instead of him just being an incrediblen returner..

I enjoyed seeing glimpes of the 90's defense the other night.

I didn't see any glimpses of that.

I like the direction this team is going but until KC's defense physically manhandles an opponent like KC's offense did the other night, I'll leave the comparisions to the '95 and '97 squads out of the discussion.

They are becoming solid. That's it. Still a loooooong way to go before they are dominate. I'm not sure this squad can be, but then again, they don't have to be. Remember?

It took two games to get the players DeRobbed. The first game of the season our D looked just like the one we saw get toasted by the Colts. Week 2 still it had some GRob moments but in week 3 they they were much better and then in week 4 much better still. IMO when studying this years D the 1st two game of the season should be thrown out. AFter the next three games we'll be able to better evaluate the Chiefs 2004 D. It appears though that with Guns scheme the D will get better all year instead of going down the tubes as the season prgresses.


PhilFree :arrow:

I did. Four sacks, good tackling and swarming to the ball. 1 pick(negated)

I think the agressiveness you saw from the offense is partly due to Gun.

I certainly hope this is improvement we're seeing...

I wouldnt mind seeing an anti-2003 season where KC's playing its best ball in Dec/Jan rather than Sep/Oct.

I saw all four sacks. With the exception of a corner blitz they were all the result of the coverage or line stunts. Until KC has a player that dominates the lineman across from him, they will not even touch those teams from the 90s. The tackling has been better, but the explosiveness in getting off blocks still isn't at that level IMHO.

You wouldn't see those 90s team give up as many 3rd and longs in the entire season as this team has in the first four games.

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...
 

Gaz,

I like the fact that 33% of the opponents rushes have been stacked up at or behind the LOS. And 60% have been for 3 yards or less. I'm not sure we had 72 stops all season long last year for 3 yards or less. I really think Gun is on the right track to taking away the run.

kool aid drinker!

Gotta love it...
 

We're better....but we won't know if we're better in any meaningful way until after our next4-5 games...if our D holds ground against the Patriots, Colt, Falcons then we can strip naked and disco....

I understand the wait and see mentality. But all signs the past couple of weeks point towards the D being able to hold ground against the three teams you have listed. Will we hold against all three? Probably not. After all, I would guess if you took a poll around the country, most fans would say the Ravens have one of the best defenses, if not the best defense, in the NFL. They were torched last Monday night. But they are still one of the best.

If we do, we will/should be ranked #1 at the end of the season.