Late-night bullshit: Run defense
 

The Chiefs are allowing 3.9 YPC, and only 89 yards rushing/game in two games. They gave up 3.1 YPC last night.

This is a NOTICEABLE improvement from years past.

Run defense (Y/YPC) under Andy the last six years:

21/31
21/17
26/29
27/31
25/23
26/24

We need more data, but we shut down a top 10 rushing attack in the Cardinals, and a team that ran for 192 yards on us the last time we played them.

Last 10 Super Bowl Champions rank in run defense

10th
1st
26th
11th
1st
3rd
3rd
9th
7th
20th

It's early, but if Andy and Spags have restored the Derrick-Johnson led run defense of his early regime, we are in for a special season with Mahomes on the other side.

This may well easily be the best run defense he's ever had.

the defense is off to a good start for sure. Last year it took them 6 or 7 games and those first 6 or 7 games were really really ****ing bad. But then after that it was pretty damn good for the most part.

It's good if they can get off to a good start early.

Good enough considering we gotta face Adams twice and god knows who else in the playoffs. Not like there's a healthy back that can truly gash us bad when mahomes is at the helm.

Old defense- Chargers offense could do no wrong.
New defense- Herbert is harrassed all night. He throws a crucial pick six and can barely scrape himself off the field at the end of the night.

This was nearly the best case scenario. Not to mention this defense has several new faces that are still learning how to play along side eachother. They're only going to get better. Very impressive!

Wins a win.
Defense still allowed this game to come down to recovering a onside kick..

I rate tonight performance.

5 lines of cocaine and 3 (almost hot) trailer park whores.

i would like to continue this discussion of our run defense

Gay and Bolton are real NFL linebackers. These two are incredible.

Don't they play the Colts next? They have a pretty good RB and O-Line. No mystery what their game plan will be.

Yup. That’ll be a great test to see how far we’ve come.

This will be Chiefs Titans lite in Indy.

Mahomes and the offense will score enough points that the Colts won't have the time to run the ball as much as they'd like, and the corpse of Matt Ryan will be buried.

Amen sweetheart

What would you like to know?

do you think this combination of a potentially elite run defense and patrick mahomes will result in a super bowl championship for our favorite team, the chiefs of kansas city, middle america, united states?

Hard to tell because Teams are going to throw on us more than they run.

It's not sexy, and nobody likes it when money/high draft picks are spent on the position, but having some real actual LBs playing makes a huge difference.

The problem with Hitchens was we depended on him and he wasn't used to being the guy in Dallas where he was part of a great team of LBs. Now we've got two studs who play well off each other, they're young, and they're a lot better than old man Hitchens.

Glad we finally made the investment in the position.

And don't forget Chenal. I saw him in on a few plays last night.

The Chiefs are surrendering 66 rushing yards per game.

Patrick Mahomes + an elite run defense will win you a lot of games in January.

The run defense has been excellent

Um, I'm not sure I'm reading the stat lines on ESPN correctly, but it says that the Chiefs' D held TB's run game to 3 yards on 6 carries.

Incredible

this was the most elite performance we've had on run defense since we held Denver to like 20 yards at Arrowhead thanksgiving night in 2006

I’d also like to point out that our defense is missing a starter at all 3 levels

The defensive line is SO much better this year at staying sound in run defense. Chris Jones has been exceptional and we've gotten plus play at the other DT spot as well.

At half time TB was - 3 yards

And we're starting Frank Clark.

It'd be difficult for any franchise to win trotting out that black hole of suck every week.

Chiefs are #2 in run defense in the NFL. Only the Niners are better.

chiefs are #1 buddy

Let's make sure we look at the stats in context.

The Chiefs are 2nd in rushing yards and 3rd in rushing yards per game but they're also second in fewest attempts per game. Teams aren't running the ball against us which brings the yardage numbers down.

What's really impressive is that the Chiefs defense is 3rd in the league in YPA at 3.3.

I remember debating this with DJ, htismaqe and staylor.

It was like their plan this off-season was to stop the run, make offenses more one dimensional and draft better secondary players for 3rd down while Spags dials up his blitzes on 3rd downs.

Looked very effective last night. And man we need more work on the DL but if we can find another good young pass rusher we are in business

They need another pass rusher. Atleast 1.

Maybe 2, but 1 would probably work fine.

Damn, it never dawned on me that the Rams and 49ers play tonight.

They're the only two teams have anywhere close to as few rushing attempts as the Chiefs have.

After tonight, the Chiefs will likely be first in rushing yards, rushing yards per game, and rushing attempts per game.

Temporarily. The 49ers have only played 3 games, because they play tonight.

If they allow more than 27 rushing yards, then we’ll be the best.

YPA just matters so much more.

We have the lowest total yards because we've allowed the fewest carries against. It's simply volume math.

The 3.3ypc is much more impressive, IMO.

Yeah, no matter how you slice it, this run defense has been incredible.

Longest run allowed by a running back: 16 yards by Eno Benjamin.

I think Jonathan Taylor had the only other carry by a running back over 10 yards.

It’s been absolutely glorious to see Bolton and Sneed stop the opponent’s backs cold. How many years has it been since we have seen that kind of tackling? It’s so nice to see first contact not resulting in and additional 5-7 yards.

i'd like to know if bryan cook is having an impact here, or if it's all bolton's progression and cullen coaching them up

bryan cook played 47 snaps last night

Did Reid get banged up? It seemed like he was off of the field for a spell.

Cook had a very nice game.

But the run defense is a combination of several things.

1. The defensive line is doing a much better job this year of executing against the run. Chris Jones has improved dramatically and the guys playing the other DT spot are doing well too.

2. The LB's are just flat better than what we've had before.

3. The DB's, especially when we're in nickel and dime, are tackling better than in the past.

Seemed like he had to come out a couple of times. Dude is probably sore today. I'd expect to see him on the injury report with something.

Better get ready to extend Chris Jones, no way you let that guy walk.

Cook looked really good to me on first glance last night.

Some folks on here were referring to him as a "bust" already.

Big Dick Nick is a huge part of our turnaround here.

On Overreaction Planet? No way! We always allow for rookie development here.

Yeah, it's a big part of it for sure.

We just shouldn't lose sight of the improvements we've made in front of, and behind, him. Because the whole defense is playing significantly better against the run than they have at any point in Mahomes' career.

It's about 75% the linebackers. We haven't had good LBs since Johnson and our run D has been terrible since. People want to blame the DL, but good LBs lead to good run D.

Agreed.

the bucs appeared to just friggin give up on the run after they stuffed it for the 2nd time in the 1st quarter though

they knew they were cooked up front and the only way to beat mahomes was going to be brady

that kind of respect on our defense hasn't been seen in a long time

kc chiefs #1 best !

All of these are great points, but Jones has been an animal this year so far. It may not be reflected in the sack numbers, but he's been destroying people up front.

I was ready to let him walk this year after last season, but he has turned it up another notch this year. I don't know if it's pride, money, etc. but you almost have to extend him now. That D-Line would NOT be the same without him.

He may not be Aaron Donald, but he's the next best thing . . . . .

Holy shoot. I was literally just thinking about this!

Yep.

i no thats rite!

Even good LB's can't make plays consistently with offensive linemen in their face.

I'd say it's 50% LB play, 25% line, and 25% secondary.

He was still getting to the passer even last year. Don't know why people so quickly dismiss what he's doing as a DT. No one has been even close to him as a pass rusher on this D for many years.

Without him we would be absolute dog shit at rushing the passer.

Chris Jones run defense was pretty poor until recently. Nobody is dismissing his pass rush ability but his improvement in run defense is noticeable, and welcome.

Yes, this is what I was trying to say. If it didn't come across that way, my bad.

He has SIGNIFICANTLY, NOTICEABLY improved on run defense.

What if we moved him out to DE?????

He played a couple of snaps at DE last night. :D

Give Brendan Daley credit. Darius Harris has looked ****ing awesome this year.

It’s like him, Danna and Saunders took huge steps forward this yesr

They aren't the only ones, either. Everybody is playing pretty well right now.