Teicher: Chiefs know they need to do better at stopping the run

[Tribal Warfare]

Chiefs know they need to do better at stopping the run
By ADAM TEICHER
The Kansas City Star

For a defensive player, there’s nothing worse than giving up big rushing yards, as the Chiefs have made a recent habit of doing.

“If you have a choice between giving up a lot of yards passing or 300 yards rushing, you’d rather give up the passes,” safety Mike Brown said. “Receivers are going to make plays. Balls can get tipped and some fluke things can happen. But if you’re giving up running yards like we have, there’s nothing that’s a fluke about it. You’re just getting whipped by the other team.”

That being the case, it’s accurate to say that life has not been pleasant for Chiefs defenders the last few weeks. They allowed 200 or more rushing yards in each of the last three games, none worse than the club-record 351 they yielded to the Cleveland Browns last week.

The Chiefs could be in store for something similar in Sunday’s game against the Bengals in Cincinnati. The Bengals like to pound away with their running game against any opponent and probably won’t stop Sunday unless the Chiefs force them.

But Chiefs coach Todd Haley said he saw some encouraging signs in recent days, off the field if not on. He said he’s seen more player-to-player discussion about fixing the problems in the run defense.

“Looking around on the sideline and then after the game and then in here on Monday, I think you saw it from the guys and that’s really where we need to get to,” Haley said. “It’s not acceptable when things don’t go right, whether it’s a Wednesday practice, Thursday practice, Friday practice or in a game.

“(It can’t always) be from me or the other coaches but from the players, where they draw the line in the sand and say, ‘This isn’t going to be all right.’ You saw some of that toward the end of that game and during the week this week.

“It’s something that around good teams, it goes on. We’re trying to be a good team, but we’re obviously not there yet.”

Talk won’t solve the Chiefs’ problems. Their front line, which last week usually consisted of veteran Ron Edwards and rookies Tyson Jackson and Alex Magee, was consistently pushed around by the Browns.

“The way we’ve been playing against the run the last few weeks is embarrassing,” Brown said. “Our focus this week is more on stopping the run than it’s ever been because we haven’t been doing a good job.

“We were in eight-man fronts the whole game. We were selling out to stop the run. We knew what they were going to do by the end of the first quarter. We knew what their game plan was and what plays they were going to run. We just couldn’t stop them.”

But Jackson said there’s been more emphasis this week than he can remember about stopping the run, and that a lot of it has come from the players.

“That’s all anybody’s been talking about,” Jackson said. “Guys like Mike Vrabel, Mike Brown, the leaders of our defense, they’ve been stepping up and trying to lead us. That’s about the worst. When you can’t stop the run, it’s always going to be a long day.”

Although they brought in veterans like Vrabel and Brown during the offseason, the Chiefs remain a young defensive team. Five defensive starters last week are in their first or second seasons while another, linebacker Corey Mays, is in his first year as a starter.

That’s one reason Vrabel and Brown are with the Chiefs. They needed some accomplished veterans to speak up in the locker room.

“I encourage that type of action, but the people doing that have to be doing their job,” Haley said. “They have to be doing their part. They can’t not be doing their side of it and then trying to hold other people accountable.”