A look at the improvement in the rushing defense.

[Coogs]

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.

[Swanman]

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.

[Gaz]

I am quite pleased by the progress of Gunther’s Defense.

I am sure he was helped by several games against Offenses that are less than stellar. Or, in the case of the Ravens, seriously 1-dimensional.

Three games under their belt, the Chiefs Defense shut down one of the top rushing games in the NFL. Held a premiere RB well under a hundred yards and had him sucking for wind on the sidelines.

All this while losing a couple of starters. I was horrified when Fujita went out, because he is our best LB [and I concede that is a condemnation of our LB corps]. But even with Barber, Beisel and Mitchell at LB, the run D remained stout.

They stuffed Lewis, beat up Boller, forced several punts and made a Defensive stop to seal the victory.

Great job.

I am eager to see how good this Defense can be this season. I think the improvement will be capped early by the talent at LB & CB, but it is thrilling to see a Defense that will be better at the end of the year than it was at the beginning of the year.

xoxo~
Gaz
Content, for the moment.

[donkhater]

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.

[Gaz]

Bearing in mind that all I can see is what the TV shows, it looked to me like we have been playing a softer zone on 3rd & long.

Am I full of it?

xoxo~
Gaz
Cannot see the whole field from Rancho Gaz.

[donkhater]

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.

[Swanman]

Originally Posted by Gaz

Bearing in mind that all I can see is what the TV shows, it looked to me like we have been playing a softer zone on 3rd & long.

Am I full of it?

xoxo~
Gaz
Cannot see the whole field from Rancho Gaz.

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.

[Coogs]

Originally Posted by Gaz

I am sure he was helped by several games against Offenses that are less than stellar. Or, in the case of the Ravens, seriously 1-dimensional.

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.

[Coogs]

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.

[stevieray]

Originally Posted by Coogs

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

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.

[donkhater]

Originally Posted by First Down Elvis

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?

[philfree]

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

[stevieray]

Originally Posted by donkhater

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?

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.

[KCTitus]

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.

[donkhater]

Originally Posted by First Down Elvis

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 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.