KC defense ready to ice vanilla look

Mr. Laz · 08-22-2006, 09:59 AM

KC defense ready to ice vanilla look

Chiefs don’t want to show too much but say they must improve.

By ADAM TEICHER
The Kansas City Star

Notes: No sign of Holmes

Herm Edwards wants to see the Chiefs play defense with a lot more fire than they showed in last week’s loss to the Giants.

One way to get that fire is to turn up the heat. Edwards hinted that the Chiefs, after playing mostly plain, basic defenses in their first two preseason games, might do just that in Saturday night’s game against St. Louis at Arrowhead Stadium.

“We’ll just see,” Edwards said. “Let’s wait until Saturday and see what we do.”

Edwards is conflicted about the defense, which has been a pushover in two games. The Chiefs have yielded a ton of rushing yards and have made no momentum-generating big plays.

The Chiefs haven’t forced a turnover and have just three sacks.

Edwards wants better. He also wants to keep the defenses as plain as possible to reveal as little as possible about their regular-season plans.

Something has to give, and it might be the need to hide their plans.

“This is the third game, so you might see a little bit different,” linebacker Derrick Johnson said. “Whatever we’re going to do, this is the game to do it. We won’t be as vanilla.”

Vanilla isn’t the normal way of defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham. Blitzing and getting pressure on the quarterback are his favorite tactics, so sitting by idly while opponents take advantage of the Chiefs has to be killing him.

“A little bit,” Edwards said. “You want to work on fundamentals, but you’re right, we’re playing it real vanilla. People know what we’re doing. They can sit there and game-plan for us all they want because they know what kind of coverage we’re going to run.

“We’re trying to implement some things and see if players can play them. That’s very, very important. Believe me, Gunther has a bag of blitzes. We can blitz. We know how to do that. We can put pressure on the quarterback if we need to do that. But we want to get some basic defenses down first. We need to get some principles down. That’s important.”

The Chiefs worked in training camp on some exotic defensive tactics but used precious few in the exhibition losses to Houston and the Giants.

“I believe the coaches are doing the right thing right now in keeping it vanilla,” Johnson said. “They’re making sure we’ve got our base defense down. We can come with the blitzes. You know Gun. He can fire off some stuff. We know his mentality. Right now, he’s probably biting his tongue sometimes. But we’ve got those plays. We’re going to get to that.

“When you play like we’ve been playing and when teams know what you’re going to do, they’re going to get some stuff on you. That’s OK. The coaches know what they’re doing. We’re buying in.”

Safety Sammy Knight agreed.

“What we’re doing is fine,” Knight said. “We’ve just got to play better. It starts by playing with more emotion. If you do that, the plays will come no matter what we’re doing on defense.”

Despite some otherwise gloomy defensive statistics, Edwards sees one positive in the pass defense. The Chiefs have not yielded a throw of more than 15 yards despite defending 59 passes and allowing 38 completions.

“We’re getting them to throw the ball where they don’t want to throw it,” Edwards said.

As far as the largely punchless pass rush, the Chiefs are counting on the return from injury of first-round draft pick Tamba Hali to help. He will start against the Rams.

Edwards indicated he believes the Chiefs are talented enough to play good defense.

“We’ve got it,” Edwards said. “We just have to get on the same page. That’s all. That’s tough. We haven’t revamped everything, but we’re asking them to do some things differently. We’re playing a coverage that’s very disciplined coverage, a very physical coverage. They’re starting to understand that. There are some things we’re going to do to help them. We’re not going to just stay in this coverage.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To reach Adam Teicher, Chiefs reporter for The Star, call (816) 234-4875 or send e-mail to [email protected]

htismaqe · 08-22-2006, 10:06 AM

One thing that Holthus mentioned to be aware of.

No, they haven't stopped anybody.

They also have given up ZERO big plays, which is a far cry different from previous years.

Mr. Laz · 08-22-2006, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by htismaqe

One thing that Holthus mentioned to be aware of.

No, they haven't stopped anybody.

They also have given up ZERO big plays, which is a far cry different from previous years.

why try a throw for 30 yards when the defense is giving you three 10 yrd passes?

stopping big plays means nothing if you can prevent the 1st downs.

RedThat · 08-22-2006, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laz

why try a throw for 30 yards when the defense is giving you three 10 yrd passes?

stopping big plays means nothing if you can prevent the 1st downs.

Could it be the cover 2 scheme? For not giving up big plays and allowing the short passes?

htismaqe · 08-22-2006, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedBull

Could it be the cover 2 scheme? For not giving up big plays and allowing the short passes?

That's one of the basic tenants of the Cover 2 - keep everything in front of you.

Cormac · 08-22-2006, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by htismaqe

They also have given up ZERO big plays, which is a far cry different from previous years.

No consolation. Die by the big play or be dinked and dunked to death. Pick your poison.

htismaqe · 08-22-2006, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cormac

No consolation. Die by the big play or be dinked and dunked to death. Pick your poison.

It is absolutely consolation. It's impossible to get dinked and dunked to death 100% of the time. No offense is perfect, they will eventually stumble and half to punt or may even turn it over.

The problem with our defense is that it never gets to that point because we've been allowing teams to score from anywhere on the field.

It IS a small step in the right direction.

RedThat · 08-22-2006, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cormac

No consolation. Die by the big play or be dinked and dunked to death. Pick your poison.

I'll stick to the dinks. Im hoping that Hali is the real deal. But the line has to improve. I like our philosophy on defense.

*I think the main emphasis of this defense is to put pressure on the QB. We've been awful at it.

FringeNC · 08-22-2006, 10:30 AM

So are the CBs going to play tight coverage or not this year?

htismaqe · 08-22-2006, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FringeNC

So are the CBs going to play tight coverage or not this year?

What, specifically, are you referring to?

If you're talking about checking the WR at the LoS, I'd say we don't yet know. They did alot of jamming against Houston, but they apparently didn't against New York.

Mr. Laz · 08-22-2006, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedBull

I'll stick to the dinks. Im hoping that Hali is the real deal. But the line has to improve. I like our philosophy on defense.

*I think the main emphasis of this defense is to put pressure on the QB. We've been awful at it.

we've tried to "stick with the dinks" before

then game time comes around and we face a decent quarterback who isn't gonna miss the open receiver and isn't gonna make the big mistake.

the offense slowly move the ball down the field and score each time and then we get behind and can't afford to play so freakin soft. We try and tighten up some and BOOM ... there goes the big play again.

heck ... you could say we've tried this bend but don't break crap every year since Vermeil showed up.

Doesn't mean crap UNLESS you can step up and stop the 1st downs or get the big turnover.

|Zach| · 08-22-2006, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laz

we've tried to "stink with the dinks" before

then game time comes around and we face a decent quarterback who isn't gonna miss the open receiver and isn't gonna make the big mistake.

the offense slowly move the ball down the field and score each time and then we get behind and can't afford to play so freakin soft. We try and tighten up some and BOOM ... there goes the big play again.

heck ... you could say we've tried this bend but don't break crap every year since Vermeil showed up.

Doesn't mean crap UNLESS you can step up and stop the 1st downs or get the big turnover.

So you have established our defense won't be that good if we don't stop people.

htismaqe · 08-22-2006, 10:12 AM

It doesn't mean "nothing" at all.

Especially when you were giving up nearly 80 plays over 20 yards in ONE SEASON.

wutamess · 08-22-2006, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by htismaqe

It doesn't mean "nothing" at all.

Especially when you were giving up nearly 80 plays over 20 yards in ONE SEASON.

Is that the case or is that exxageration?
I'm truly wanting to know.
Not being facetious.

RedThat · 08-22-2006, 10:23 AM

My understanding is, we're not giving up big plays, and allowing short passes. Not stopping anybody?

Then this D-Line really stinks. Sims, Dalton, Hicks....adios. These guys gotta go. They are so bad that they shouldn't even be backups.

*I heard in another thread that Benny Sapp is our best pass rusher right now.

08-22-2006, 09:59 AM	Topic Starter
Mr. Laz Don't Tease Me Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: KS Casino cash: $11047037	KC defense ready to ice vanilla look KC defense ready to ice vanilla look Chiefs don’t want to show too much but say they must improve. By ADAM TEICHER The Kansas City Star Notes: No sign of Holmes Herm Edwards wants to see the Chiefs play defense with a lot more fire than they showed in last week’s loss to the Giants. One way to get that fire is to turn up the heat. Edwards hinted that the Chiefs, after playing mostly plain, basic defenses in their first two preseason games, might do just that in Saturday night’s game against St. Louis at Arrowhead Stadium. “We’ll just see,” Edwards said. “Let’s wait until Saturday and see what we do.” Edwards is conflicted about the defense, which has been a pushover in two games. The Chiefs have yielded a ton of rushing yards and have made no momentum-generating big plays. The Chiefs haven’t forced a turnover and have just three sacks. Edwards wants better. He also wants to keep the defenses as plain as possible to reveal as little as possible about their regular-season plans. Something has to give, and it might be the need to hide their plans. “This is the third game, so you might see a little bit different,” linebacker Derrick Johnson said. “Whatever we’re going to do, this is the game to do it. We won’t be as vanilla.” Vanilla isn’t the normal way of defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham. Blitzing and getting pressure on the quarterback are his favorite tactics, so sitting by idly while opponents take advantage of the Chiefs has to be killing him. “A little bit,” Edwards said. “You want to work on fundamentals, but you’re right, we’re playing it real vanilla. People know what we’re doing. They can sit there and game-plan for us all they want because they know what kind of coverage we’re going to run. “We’re trying to implement some things and see if players can play them. That’s very, very important. Believe me, Gunther has a bag of blitzes. We can blitz. We know how to do that. We can put pressure on the quarterback if we need to do that. But we want to get some basic defenses down first. We need to get some principles down. That’s important.” The Chiefs worked in training camp on some exotic defensive tactics but used precious few in the exhibition losses to Houston and the Giants. “I believe the coaches are doing the right thing right now in keeping it vanilla,” Johnson said. “They’re making sure we’ve got our base defense down. We can come with the blitzes. You know Gun. He can fire off some stuff. We know his mentality. Right now, he’s probably biting his tongue sometimes. But we’ve got those plays. We’re going to get to that. “When you play like we’ve been playing and when teams know what you’re going to do, they’re going to get some stuff on you. That’s OK. The coaches know what they’re doing. We’re buying in.” Safety Sammy Knight agreed. “What we’re doing is fine,” Knight said. “We’ve just got to play better. It starts by playing with more emotion. If you do that, the plays will come no matter what we’re doing on defense.” Despite some otherwise gloomy defensive statistics, Edwards sees one positive in the pass defense. The Chiefs have not yielded a throw of more than 15 yards despite defending 59 passes and allowing 38 completions. “We’re getting them to throw the ball where they don’t want to throw it,” Edwards said. As far as the largely punchless pass rush, the Chiefs are counting on the return from injury of first-round draft pick Tamba Hali to help. He will start against the Rams. Edwards indicated he believes the Chiefs are talented enough to play good defense. “We’ve got it,” Edwards said. “We just have to get on the same page. That’s all. That’s tough. We haven’t revamped everything, but we’re asking them to do some things differently. We’re playing a coverage that’s very disciplined coverage, a very physical coverage. They’re starting to understand that. There are some things we’re going to do to help them. We’re not going to just stay in this coverage.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To reach Adam Teicher, Chiefs reporter for The Star, call (816) 234-4875 or send e-mail to [email protected]
Posts: 95,626

08-22-2006, 10:06 AM	#2
htismaqe 'Tis my eye! Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Chiefsplanet Casino cash: $8099900	One thing that Holthus mentioned to be aware of. No, they haven't stopped anybody. They also have given up ZERO big plays, which is a far cry different from previous years.
Posts: 104,421

08-22-2006, 10:30 AM	#9
FringeNC MVP Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: NC Casino cash: $-1773986	So are the CBs going to play tight coverage or not this year?
Posts: 10,234

08-22-2006, 10:12 AM	#13
htismaqe 'Tis my eye! Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Chiefsplanet Casino cash: $8099900	It doesn't mean "nothing" at all. Especially when you were giving up nearly 80 plays over 20 yards in ONE SEASON.
Posts: 104,421

08-22-2006, 10:23 AM	#15
RedThat Banned Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Earth Casino cash: $10004900	My understanding is, we're not giving up big plays, and allowing short passes. Not stopping anybody? Then this D-Line really stinks. Sims, Dalton, Hicks....adios. These guys gotta go. They are so bad that they shouldn't even be backups. *I heard in another thread that Benny Sapp is our best pass rusher right now.
Posts: 6,666