football is still football, and the principles that have stood for decades still apply.

If you can make an offense one dimensional, it's easier to defend.

Period.

If you can force a defense to play both run and pass, and defend every blade of grass, your chances of winning are much greater than if you're predictable.

It's that simple. No matter who you have at QB, this is all still true.

The Chiefs have decided that teams will not run on them, and that puts immense pressure on the opposing offense, as KC is going to score a lot. Pretty soon, they will have to abandon the run, which makes the defense's job easier.

Right. Everyone wants to go buy into all the advanced metrics and whatnot. And that's fine, but like you said, the principles have not changed. You still have to run the ball and stop the run.

Does everyone forget that 2019 Chiefs defense that shut down Derrick Henry? That was huge in getting that W and advancing to the SB.

Pass defense is more important in today's NFL. You can't get gashed vs the run, but as long as you're decent against the run you're fine.

Lockdown pass defense is a myth. SITUATIONAL pass defense is important but volume pass defense simply isn't.

A team can give up thousands of yards through the air and still win a Super Bowl. A team that can't stop the run won't make it through the playoffs 9 times out of 10.

Any lock down "defense"is a myth these days. Yards dont' really matter.

Red zone defense and turnovers are two big keys, pressure and sacks as well IMO.

Teams that can't stop the run dont' make the playoffs unless they just outscore everyone. A team can give up thousands of yards on the ground and still win the SB. Same with the pass.

Except a team that gives up thousands of yards on the ground don't win Super Bowls. There's been two or 3 teams in the last 30 years that went on to win a Super Bowl with a bottom 3rd run defense.

Why?

Because if you're giving up tons of yards on the ground, you're also more than likely giving up chunk yards on the ground. Teams run the ball more when it's successful and if you give up 5-6 yards a pop, you can't get the other team off the field. That leads to situational issues - 3rd down efficiency goes down, red zone efficiency goes down, TOP problems, and so on.

That being said, it's still not about total yards. It's about yards per play.

Getting chunk plays on the ground is just more difficult though.

Look at rushing teams in the postseason. They don't usually win many Sb's either.

Super Bowls are ultimately won by QB's. That's why stopping the run is so damn important. One of the easiest ways to overcome opposing QB play is to simply keep them off the field. And if you don't have one of THOSE QB's, it's the ONLY way to win.

Yup. The Titans playoff game is full proof of that.

If you are simply a good team without an elite game changing QB then you need to be able to run to help him win.

Making teams without an elite QB one dimensional is a huge advantage

you can no further than Sunday night around 10:30pm for proof.

Brady threw for 386,000 yards Sunday night. All it did was make the final score look closer than it was.

The story of the game is essentially zero yards rushing.

You can still look at the leader lines each week and it's still pretty reliable.

Passing leaders are a couple elite QBs and a bunch of losing teams
Rushing leaders are a bunch of nobody RBs with wins.

3rd and long: likely a pass
3rd and short: could be anything

Defending the run competently creates more third and longs.

It’s really that simple.

Exactly.

And in the case of the Chiefs, those 3rd and longs have been the key to generating what few turnovers we've generated.

It's super important.

Found this:

“Back in our 2019 research, we found that Super Bowl-winning defenses all ranked in the top 15 in opponent completion percentage, dating back to 2009.

Since 2019, Kansas City won the Super Bowl after ranking fifth in opponent completion percentage (60.98), but last year's champion, Tampa Bay, was a huge outlier.

The Bucs averaged the 11th worst opponent completion percentage (66.96%) and still won a Super Bowl. But the defense also buckled down in the postseason and kept opposing quarterbacks to a 59.85% completion percentage in their final three playoff games. “

For sure, efficiency is a valuable data point. Completion percentage against is much more indicative of a good defense than total yards.