Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
(Post 16724896)
Just get to Burrow.
The rest is masturbating.
I cannot for the life of me figure out why this team cannot touch Joe Burrow. The rest of the league beats him like a rented mule when they send 3 and yet we can't even get his damn jersey dirty when we send 6.
I don't get it and at this point I don't even care what the cause is. Fix it. Go hit that MFer. The rest will sort itself out.
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Last couple games we played against them, according to Orlovsky/some other QB analyst, I think, our LBs and safeties have been allowing him to get the ball out really quick. Like 2.7 seconds. He's been having receivers get open almost immediately because KC is pretty weak vs. RBs/TEs, and our safeties weren't making him hesitate/pay for deep passes down the sidelines. And Dan said that Burrow had been trying to push the ball downfield early in the season but had adjusted by week 5-6(?) and was taking what the defense would give him, i.e., throwing underneath to RBs mostly, and the TE.
There's other things as well, like the fact that his OL was pretty bad early in the season, but improved rapidly, so when we faced them they were gelling and not the same OL they were early.
But yeah, if we can't get consistent pressure, and cover much better than the last two times we faced him, it'll be a long day.
The issue, imo, is mostly about consistency. We have the athletes to be a top-10-12 defense, the players with the higher football IQ, etc., but we've really lacked consistency in communication, situational awareness and execution. Particularly at LB and S.
So, while the defense as improved statistically these last 5 weeks or so, it's also true that KC has faced a significantly lower quality of opponent over that stretch, making it tougher to read.
What's concerning is that while playing the likes of DEN/HOU, they allowed a very high scoring efficiency, mostly TDs vs. FGs. That's a big problem, especially when viewed through the lens of the QBs/offenses KC faced. In nearly every other statistical respect, the Chiefs defense played fairly well, but not in that one, which is obviously the most important one.
Of course, turnovers didn't help them, but at least twice against both DEN and HOU they allowed TDs that were just far too easy. Especially when the QBs that executed those scoring drives were guys like Wilson, Davis, etc.
However, they've been playing better over the last couple weeks. Just lacked consistency in the DEN game, and a couple ticky-tack penalties in the second half of the DEN game make it look a little worse than it was.
Anway, I don't entirely discount the edge that recent success/confidence can bring either. They
could take that and run with it through the playoffs, but at the end of the day, the front 7 will have to play better and be more consistent to beat CIN, period.
It will help a ton if we don't have to face Cheffers in the playoffs as well.:thumb: