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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – Denver Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr. wears a navy-blue Fitbit tracker on his wrist at all times, his own personal way to track his daily movements, separate from the data his team collects from a tracker he wears in his jersey during practices and games.
When he finally, slowly, made his way back into the locker room after the Broncos’ loss to the Kansas City Chiefs earlier this month, he tapped his finger on the screen of his Fitbit to see a startling number: The tracker was showing that he had run nearly 15 miles that day, including the steps taken in pregame warm-ups.
He couldn’t remember a previous time where he had run more than 11 miles over the course of a game day. But this is what the Chiefs do to defensive backs — and especially cornerbacks like Harris who line up in the slot.
“In that game, that was the worst I’ve ever felt,” Harris said Wednesday, leaning against a wall off the side of the Broncos’ practice field. “Just physically, I was drained. I had no burst, I was just done.”
Harris and the Broncos flew to New Jersey to play the New York Jets six days later and were blown out. Harris admitted this week there was likely a correlation between the physical toll the Chiefs took on Broncos’ defenders and how poorly they played against the Jets, when they gave up 512 yards, including touchdowns of 76- and 77 yards.
“I think there was, we came out so flat and just didn’t play good. But then, we also played Monday night and had to travel east,” Harris said.
But the Broncos are hardly alone. Four of the first six teams that played the Chiefs gave up more than their season average in yardage a week after playing the Chiefs, several of them dramatically so. The Jaguars, who entered their Week 5 matchup against Kansas City with the NFL’s No. 1 scoring defense, gave up 378 yards and 40 points to Dallas the following week. Though the Steelers managed to beat the Bucs the week after playing Kansas City, they still gave up a season-high 455 yards against Tampa.
Even the New England Patriots (the only team to beat the Chiefs this year), gave up well above their season average in yards the following week, 453 yards to Mitchell Trubisky and the Bears. Only the Los Angeles Chargers turned in a good defensive performance the week after playing the Chiefs, and that came in Week 2 at Buffalo, in Bills’ rookie quarterback Josh Allen’s first start.
<TABLE class="table table-condensed table-bordered"><TBODY><TR bgColor=#edf1f3><TH align=center>
WEEK
</TH><TH align=center>TEAM</TH><TH align=center>Y.A. VS. KC</TH><TH align=center>Y.A. NEXT GAME</TH><TH align=center>2018 AVERAGE (YDS)</TH></TR><TR><TD align=center>1</TD><TD align=center>Chargers</TD><TD align=center>362</TD><TD align=center>293 (vs. Bills)</TD><TD align=center>326</TD></TR><TR><TD align=center>2</TD><TD align=center>Steelers</TD><TD align=center>449</TD><TD align=center>455 (vs. Bucs)</TD><TD align=center>380.2</TD></TR><TR><TD align=center>3</TD><TD align=center>49ers</TD><TD align=center>384</TD><TD align=center>368 (vs. Chargers)</TD><TD align=center>370</TD></TR><TR><TD align=center>4</TD><TD align=center>Broncos</TD><TD align=center>446</TD><TD align=center>512 (vs. Jets)</TD><TD align=center>378</TD></TR><TR><TD align=center>5</TD><TD align=center>Jaguars</TD><TD align=center>424</TD><TD align=center>378 (vs. Dallas)</TD><TD align=center>301</TD></TR><TR><TD align=center>6</TD><TD align=center>Patriots</TD><TD align=center>446</TD><TD align=center>453 (vs. Bears)</TD><TD align=center>389.9</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
This Chiefs Hangover is the 2018 version of what the Seattle Seahawks defense used to do to opposing offenses earlier this decade: Beat them up so badly on Sunday that it would take more than a week to recover.
The Chiefs’ offense isn’t necessarily running defenses over (though Kareem Hunt certainly enjoys lowering his helmet, sometimes illegally, to gain extra yards), it’s that they are running them ragged with pre-snap motions and frequent deep routes, while quarterback Patrick Mahomes routinely extends plays by escaping the pocket, forcing defensive backs to cover for five seconds or more.
“The things they did, it felt like a track meet,” Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey said about his team’s 30-14 loss earlier in October. “But I love track.”
The Jaguars defense has been unrecognizable since they trudged off the field at Arrowhead Stadium. It was almost as if Mahomes and Co. had stolen a bit of their souls and rattled their confidence.
When Ramsey and the Jaguars played the Cowboys a week after their game against Kansas City, the fatigue was obvious enough that CBS commentator Tony Romo said on the broadcast that Ramsey looked tired.
Ramsey didn’t deny it. He told reporters that Jaguars officials had told him that the mileage he ran earlier this year while covering Odell Beckham Jr. had been a career high, and the data from the game against the Chiefs, when he was assigned to “travel” with Tyreek Hill — meaning he had to follow Hill no matter where the receiver would line up — was similar.
“It was more or less the same chasing (Hill) around everywhere when he is the fastest guy in the league,” Ramsey said. “Traveling alone — going back and forth is tough. Especially when they do a lot of deep routes and stuff and over routes.”
Hill is, objectively, the fastest player in the NFL this year, and according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, has recorded the two fastest plays of the year — hitting 21.95 and 21.78 mph during touchdowns in Week 1 against the Chargers.
But he’s not the sole reason that the Chiefs are wearing opposing defenses down.
It’s the way Hill and other receivers move before the snap; it’s the deep routes called for every wide receiver, tight end and even fullback Anthony Sherman; it’s the way Mahomes runs to throw, on both designed bootlegs and scrambles. The Chiefs can bury even the deepest and most confident of defenses like the Broncos and Jaguars.
This is by design, and the Chiefs seem to relish throwing defenses into a panic.
Mahomes said Wednesday they are getting used to seeing defenses abandon their game plan in the second half, trying to figure out something that might work.
“They try to try different stuff. That’s the biggest thing,” Mahomes said. “Sometimes when we jump on a team, they’re trying to roll coverages and switch coverages to figure out something that works. That’s what you see in the second half. It just provides different opportunities. In our offense versus any coverage, we usually have an answer. For me, it’s about recognizing those coverages and then figuring out where I need to put the ball.”
The Broncos have played both the Chiefs (currently ranked first in points per game, second in total yards, and third in yards per game) and the Rams (ranked third in points per game, first in total yards and second in yards per game), but the Chiefs were unique in their ability to wear a defense out, Broncos coach Vance Joseph said. While the Rams run so many different plays out of the same basic formation, with the same three wide receivers, Kansas City changes its personnel so often that it’s hard for both coaches on the sideline and players on the field to keep up.
“This team is in two-tight ends, they’re in two-backs, they’re in three-wides, they’re in no-backs, they’re in four-wides with one back—that’s challenging to obviously match every group they have. As far as the players, everything’s vertical and it’s deep-over,” Joseph said. “For the corners, it’s a marathon of a game. They have to be mentally ready to be challenged vertically every play. If you’re not, they can score 50 points on you. Our guys get it.”
Joseph’s Broncos this week become the first team to play the Chiefs for a second time this season, when the two teams meet at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday. Part of the preparation for that game has been studying not just all of the Chiefs’ offensive tape but reviewing how the Broncos defenders physically handled the unique stressors of that game.
Harris had to briefly leave the first game in the third quarter, long enough to take in two bags of intravenous fluids in the locker room. It was only the second time in his eight-year career he’s needed an IV during the game (the first was during Super Bowl 50), and the first time he needed two.
This week he’s preemptively hydrating by increasing his water and electrolyte intake days ahead of the game and heading into Sunday knowing he’ll need to find time to conserve his energy. The Broncos are acutely aware of the way they allowed the Chiefs to rally from a 13-point deficit earlier this month and remember how awful they felt, both physically and emotionally, after.
“I don’t want to play like how I played in that fourth quarter last game,” Harris said. “I was just hanging by a thread, just out there running. I want to be peaking, coming at my best in the fourth quarter this game.”
This week’s result – and maybe next week’s, too – are depending on it.
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