Teicher: Chiefs on the verge of setting NFL record for fewest sacks

[Tribal Warfare]

Chiefs on the verge of setting NFL record for fewest sacks
By ADAM TEICHER
The Kansas City Star

Their feeble pass rush is one subject the Chiefs would prefer not to discuss as they prepare for Sunday’s final regular-season game at Cincinnati.

“That’s not the kind of thing we’re talking about around here,” linebacker Demorrio Williams said.

Unpleasant topic or not, the 2-13 Chiefs are on the verge of setting an NFL record for fewest sacks. They have only nine, and the 16-game season record is 13, set by the 2-14 Baltimore Colts in 1981.

About the only encouragement the Chiefs have for their capacity to avoid the record is that the Bengals can give up the sacks. They’ve allowed 50, the third-highest total in the league.

“We can get it done,” said defensive end Tamba Hali, the Chiefs’ leader with three sacks. “I’d rather win. I’d rather have both, but if I have to choose, I’d take a win.”

Then again, the Bengals might not provide the Chiefs a chance to avoid the record. Cincinnati got an early lead in last week’s win over Cleveland and let quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick throw only nine passes. The Browns didn’t get a sack.

Although he’s gone down 37 times in his 11 games as Cincinnati’s quarterback, Fitzpatrick can be an elusive target. His ability to escape a rush is similar to that of Chiefs quarterback Tyler Thigpen.

Cincinnati’s high sack total is more on an injured and ineffective offensive line than Fitzpatrick.

“If Fitz wasn’t playing, we’d probably have more sacks,” Bengals receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh said. “With him being so athletic and being able to move around in the pocket so well, if he wasn’t playing, the sack total would even be higher.”

The league record for most sacks is 72, and that seems more plausible than nine. An opposing quarterback might fall down behind the line of scrimmage nine times in a season.

That hasn’t happened against the Chiefs this season, which is why getting the five necessary sacks to avoid at least a share of the record would require a most unlikely outburst.

The Chiefs had three sacks in a game against San Diego earlier this month, a season high. Otherwise, they have two games with two sacks, two with one and 10 with none.

“It’s frustrating,” linebacker Derrick Johnson said. “It is what it is. We’re not going to go out and try to get five sacks. We’re going to go out there and play our game and try to win.”

Getting to such a forlorn place took last spring’s trade of Jared Allen to Minnesota and then the major miscalculation that they could replace his league-leading 15 1/2 sacks of last year.

The Chiefs had no illusions they would all come from one place but thought that among Hali, Johnson, Williams, Donnie Edwards, Alfonso Boone and Glenn Dorsey they could get to 15 1/2 and then some.

Those players combined for 6 1/2 sacks. Jason Babin and Ron Edwards each have a sack, and Pat Thomas has a half.

“Losing a guy like (Allen), you knew we’d go down,” Johnson said. “You didn’t think we’d go down like that.

“We were moving some stuff around early in the year, and then we started getting injuries here and there. Our focus kind of got off getting sacks. It’s been hard for us.”

The Chiefs moved Hali into Allen’s spot as the designated pass rusher at right end, but from the start he never looked comfortable. Finally, they gave up on that experiment, and he returned to his former position at left end.

“The mindset on the right is so much different,” Hali said. “When I’m on the right, I should be rushing the passer regardless every down. When I was on the right, I was playing the run when I felt it was a run and playing the pass when I thought it was a pass. When Jared was here, pass or run, he was rushing the passer. You can’t bench a guy who was putting the quarterback down two or three times a game. I don’t have that mindset. It’s harder unless all you want to do is pass rush.

“We miss Jared, but it’s not like we don’t have our pieces. What Jared did was extraordinary, but we need to play as a group. If we don’t play as a group, we make a lot of mistakes across the board. I don’t want to keep repeating the same thing over and over: ‘We’re young,’ and this and that. But sooner or later, we need to get it.”