Berry has finally perfected his pregame speech?

I think as much as anything else they got sick and tired of listening to everybody on earth talk about how much they suck, and manned up and did something about it.

It's also speculated that Michelle Obama has a penis (or, at a minimum, an extraordinarily large and formidable clitoris).

There's a lot of speculation in the world and ChiefsPlanet participates with gusto. In fact, several of the "big stories" that result in strong opinions on this site are either highly exaggerated or merely false.

Houston gave you some clues in his post-game presser. Sutton's D isn't "simple", there are a ton of schemes and mini-schemes. Each player has specific responsibilities on each play depending on the call. It can be argued that the complexity of his defense is his biggest flaw (if you look at it that way). To run that defense, you need pro-bowl caliber players at every level and two if you can get them. They have to be smart, they have to study, and they have to take their preparation into the game each week.

Houston said the problem has been "new guys" that had to learn the D. While they were learning or recovering from injury, we had to fill in some holes with older/slower players as the season unfolded. Great NFL defenses play as a cohesive unit. The Chiefs haven't done much of that.

What I saw was some fundamentally sound man-to-man coverage, some very nice, aggressive front-line play and an "attacking" mentality from the LBs. Guys were playing instead of thinking for a change.

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Wasn’t it the same one who flagged us 15 times to none at NE?

He favored the home team all season, I believe.

I think the big change is getting Scandrick off the field. Swapping him with Ward did two things:

1. It's hard for Scandrick to get a holding penalty from the bench.
2. Teams are going after Ward because he's the new guy, and that means they aren't targeting Nelson as much so his penalties are way down as well. Nelson is a good coverage guy but he just can't locate the ball ever and it causes tons of PI from lack of awareness. Eventually teams are going to start going after Nelson again because Ward is showing no weakness.

It could be that the officiating is letting more things go, but I think the above two reasons are far more significant as to why penalties are down.

On top of that main change, Nnadi's play has slowly been improving all season long and he has looked genuinely good the last couple of games, and the inside linebackers have looked a little better too although that could just be from Nnadi's improved play keeping them clean.

Oh, and Lucas is definitely an improvement over Parker.

I want him again.

Definitely think they were motivated by that, but I also think tweaking the personnel has made a big difference.

But the defense was never quite as bad as the numbers. They played a lot of great QBs and offenses, and many were on the road. With a schedule like the Colts, the stats would have been around middle of the pack.

From section 323, it looked like the DBs were allowed to get away with more contact than they have been all year.

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It should also be noted that the only truly awful game they had, against the Chargers, came four days after an overtime game against the Ravens. As I've said several times, I think the Ravens did as much to win that game as LA did.

I also think that if it had been played on Sunday instead of Thursday (**** Thursday games) the outcome would have been different.

So, then, it would make sense that the "complexity" has been scrapped in favor of something that allows players to play instead of trying to perform a mental game of "Twister" while simultaneously reading a football field and making a stop, yes?

3 concrete bollards would be an upgrade over Parker, Murray, and Scandrick, so getting them out of the starting lineup made a difference. Rewatch yesterday's game and key on Ward. That dude was showing some elite cover skills most of the afternoon. He shut down his side of the field.

Post game interview with Ford and Houston said, “we are a different defense, we are gelling, new guys, guys from other teams, we are peaking at the right time.”
I’m going to take this as more Fuller, Ward, Nandi, etc. benching Scandrick and Parker and starting the rookies (week 16?) was a good move. It’s starting to pay off.
That play where Houston and Ford both came from the right, resulting in the sack, more of that please!

Also,refs were lenient on DPI, yes.

The complexity clearly hasn’t been scrapped. You can watch a couple of drives and see that. Better athletes are getting on the field with better understanding.

I also imagine the D is done hearing about how bad they are.