Late night bullshit: breaking down the tape on our defense.
 

Just random thoughts on multiple viewings of our defensive snaps:

* During the first half (and the first half of the third quarter) the Chiefs were a fantastic, totally modern assortment of how they preferred to line up their DL. They played Poe 90% of the time, and they played him at nose and end. They played DeVito like 70%, and they played him at nose occasionally. They played Tyson Jackson about 70% of the time, and played him at both end positions. Catapano is our rotational guy.

* Catapano got some great snaps in, and looks incredibly promising -- a guy who was initially brought in as an OLB, but was insanely strong so the staff was like **** it, we have no depth at DE, let's try him out there. Not only does he give you extra athleticism, but the guy is stout as a mother****er against the run. You cannot run against the Chiefs.

* Let me say that again: you cannot run against the Chiefs. Jackson and DeVito are already incredibly good against the run, and Poe has finally developed to be perhaps the best of the bunch. Catapano has proven himself adept as well. Houston, Berry, Jordan, and DJ all serve their roles brilliantly in plugging gaps.

* That's probably the biggest difference between the Chiefs defense under Herm, Haley, and Crennel, compared to Reid. Under Reid (i.e. Bob Sutton), the Chiefs' gap integrity has so far been unrivaled. The entire defense moves as a singular cohesive unit. Poe is commanding double- and triple-teams, Jackson and DeVito are owning tackles, Houston and Hali are cutting off the edges, and Jordan, Johnson, and Berry are plugging gaps brilliantly.

* There are so many brilliant talents on this defense, but the emotional tone setters are clearly Hali and Flowers. Poe, Houston, Johnson, Berry, and all the others are very talented, but the emotional leaders on this defense right now are Hali and Flowers, and it looks like Berry is about a season or so away from getting there as well. Hali's hustle spreads like a virus across this defense, and you can see his pursuit borne out in Houston, DJ, Berry, Poe, and Jackson.

* Poe... what else can be said about this guy. His play today suggests he could keep developing to become the best DT this team has had since the franchise's Super Bowl days. There is only so much you can do against an all-muscle 330 lbs that's faster than most offensive lineman and stronger than most offensive lineman. You can tell his technique is developing, and the Chiefs are throwing him into all kinds of twists and stunts to create mismatches. My favorite play was probably his combined sack with Eric Berry.

* Eric Berry is being played like a linebacker, and against the Jags he played roughly 10% of his snaps at the line of scrimmage. His coverage has improved but the very best part of Berry's game: he is unblockable. Sending out offensive lineman to block him is a fool's errand. He sheds blocks like nobody's business.

* The Chiefs stuffed the box against the Jags -- they did more than stuff the box, they stuffed the line of scrimmage. So many times they lined up 7 guys along the line of scrimmage, some of them dropping back and some of them rushing. I still don't like Hali dropping back. Houston is money in coverage, though. He was on the field for every defensive snap because he is so ****ing versatile.

* Great game from Kendrick Lewis, too. Played very aggressive, lots of snaps up against the line of scrimmage. The Chiefs are treating Lewis as the FS and Berry as more of the SS, but they are mixing Lewis up all over the field, treating him as more of a hybrid between the safeties, while Berry is part-timing as a linebacker.

* If Jackson can rack up a half dozen sacks while being rock solid against the run, we should seriously work our ass off to resign him this offseason. He will be as close to that guy we drafted #3 overall as anything else we could possibly bring in.

* This defense has the talent and the defensive coordinator to be a Top 5 defense. It's definitely a Top 10 defense. The Cowboys game will be a phenomenal challenge, as Romo will willingly challenge our corners more aggressively, and Sean Smith, Husain Abdullah, and Quentin Demps will be challenged far more frequently. We can still be exposed in the passing game: Hali will have a bear of a time against Tyron Smith, but Houston and Poe should pave a path to Romo that Berry and DJ can follow. But if that passrush doesn't come as quickly as it needs to, then Sean Smith can get exposed if he's not on his game, which he all-too-frequently isn't. I don't fear any of Dallas' tertiary receivers against our nickel- and dime-backs, but I do fear Dez Bryant, Miles Austin, and Jason Witten against Sean Smith, Brandon Flowers, and Eric Berry.

But the Cowboys will not run on the Chiefs. Nobody will, this year.

Cowboys have zero in the run game...fully expect Hali and Houston to tee off.

We need to add the following to the lexicon:

Breaking down game tape = watching the game again

Mostly good points.

A few points of MAJOR disagreement:
-Tyson Jackson isn't going to rack up 6 sacks. He'll be lucky to get 2 or 3. He got into the backfield because nobody blocked him. I'll have to re-watch the game, but unless things have changed, he seems useless in the passing game
-I think you can run on this defense. We will see. I think a good team is going to hit the Chiefs with a ton of misdirection, counters, bootlegs, and playfakes. We will see if we can actually stop that
-Our secondary depth was not tested, and that's going to be the most important part. I think Lewis' lack of speed is going to be a huge liability given how aggressive we're going to play, and the fact that we're considering 3 safety sets tells you how bad our CB depth is

I like the way the defense is trending. I think our talent gaps keep us far from the top 5 rank. We are probably a borderline top 10 defense at best.

[QUOTE=cdcox;9955260]We need to add the following to the lexicon:

LMAO

Talent gaps?

We have like 6 defense players with Pro Bowl potential.

Was this Tamba Hali's first career TD?

I'm still anticipating a couple of "WTF we suck!" games from our defense this year, especially when legitimately good QBs start carving us up underneath on screens.

And we still don't know if we can prevent big plays downfield. The Jags have no offensive line and a shitty QB. It won't always be this way.

It's only one game, against a horrible team.

This is a passing game, and I think a lot of our secondary depth problems are will be exposed. From a run perspective, yeah, I think we have potential to be really, really good if we don't overpursue.

Congrats on the win. Manning will have to prepare.

And we did exactly what you'd expect a Top 5 defense to do to them.

He's coming off a brutal injury. I think he's done.