Chiefs' living and dying with pass rush will get ultimate test from Tom Brady

[T-post Tom]

Outside linebacker Justin Houston has played for some strong pass-rushing teams since joining the Kansas City Chiefs. He usually contributes to the effort in a big way, never more so than in 2014, when he had 22 sacks.

Houston said recently that he wasn’t sure how this year’s team compared. “That’s a tough one," Houston said. “I’ve been on a lot of great units."

Houston was certain of one thing, though.

“The best is yet to come," he said.

Houston has good reason to feel that way. The pass rush has helped carry the Chiefs to Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots at Arrowhead Stadium.

The Chiefs tied for the NFL regular-season lead with 52 sacks. Lineman Chris Jones led the way with 15.5, followed by linebacker Dee Ford with 13. Houston had nine despite missing four games with an injury.

For much of the season, the pass rush was about all the Chiefs could consistently rely on from their defense. Their rushing defense was woeful and their pass coverage spotty.

The most obvious example of the pass rush winning a game for them came in December against the Baltimore Ravens. With the game tied 24-24 late in the fourth quarter, Houston sacked Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, forced him to fumble and then recovered with the Chiefs in field goal range.

The Chiefs missed the kick, sending the game to overtime. But after taking a 27-24 lead, the Chiefs in effect closed it out with another Houston sack that pushed the Ravens into late-down and long-distance situations.

The rest of the defense has come around. The Chiefs allowed just one late touchdown and a defensive TD in their 31-13 win over the Indianapolis Colts in the divisional round, after giving up just a field goal in the final regular-season game against the Oakland Raiders.

The pass rush is still the basis of everything the Chiefs accomplish on defense. They sacked Andrew Luck three times on Saturday. Impressive, considering the Colts allowed a league-low 18 sacks this season.

“We don’t care who we are going against," Jones said. “We can go up against brick walls and we will find a way to beat them."

It’s not just about sacks. The Chiefs, for instance, deflected four passes against the Colts, three by Jones and one by Houston.

“[When] you start affecting [the quarterback's] spot, [when] he can’t get to his second or third read ... [when] he can’t step up ... there are a lot of things that affect the quarterback," outside linebackers coach Mike Smith said.

“The ball comes out quick these days, especially against us. It’s almost record time every time we play. They’re adding chips, keeping guys in. It affects an [opposing] offense. They’ve got to prepare every week for what we have."

Ford said, “Obviously, you want a sack but you’re not going to get a sack every play. You can’t rush with the mentality that ‘I want a sack every play’ because you could be hurting the defense. Getting pressure on the quarterback means disrupting the timing of his throws [when] he can’t step through on certain throws. That takes certain types of rushes and it takes you knowing how to do that every play.

“If the ball is going to come out quick, all we can do is disrupt that throw. That can lead to us getting off the field.’’

Getting off the field without allowing points is the goal on every defensive drive, the sooner the better because field position can be affected.

That’s where a strong rush comes in. The Chiefs generated a strong pass rush without blitzing a lot. They blitzed on about 12 percent of their plays in the regular season, which was the 10th-lowest rate in the league.

That approach could be helpful Sunday. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has historically had trouble facing defenses that can rush the passer successfully without blitzing.

The Chiefs blitzed even less against the Colts, on just five of the 53 snaps they defended.

“Everybody will tell you if you can do it with four people, that’s an even bigger advantage," defensive coordinator Bob Sutton said. “Obviously it gives you more people to cover with and you can do more things schematically."

The Chiefs had a strip sack against the Colts when Ford knocked the ball away from Luck. The Chiefs recovered. In their 43-40 regular-season loss to the Patriots, the Chiefs sacked Brady twice, but Brady threw for more than 300 yards. On Sunday, in what could be another high-scoring game, disrupting Brady and getting the ball back to Patrick Mahomes and the offense will be paramount.

“A pass rush can get you off the field," said Sutton, whose defense gave up 500 total yards to the Patriots in the Week 6 matchup. "Even when you’re not playing dominant defense and giving up a lot of yards, the key part is always getting the ball back or getting off the field. One or the other. The other thing we’ve done a great job of is stripping the ball. It’s not just sacks but the ability to take the ball away. That’s a challenging thing for an offense to deal with. Not only do you have to deal with pressure but also the possibility of losing the ball."



http://www.espn.com/blog/kansas-city...from-tom-brady

[VAGOMO 4 LIFE!]

If Berry is back I’d want Sorenson as a linebacker. He needs to get up there and stop the run. Drop the hammer Dirty Dan!!

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by The Pest

Ward and Lucas have helped this defense immensely.

Ward is going to be very above average once he blossoms

[VAGOMO 4 LIFE!]

Originally Posted by Simply Red

Ward is going to be very above average once he blossoms

And we have him for 2 years!!

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by MAHOMO 4 LIFE!

If Berry is back I’d want Sorenson as a linebacker. He needs to get up there and stop the run. Drop the hammer Dirty Dan!!

The opposite is actually a better scenario. Plays to their strengths better.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

The opposite is actually a better scenario. Plays to their strengths better.

I still think folks have been mis-identifying Sorensen's strengths for as long as he's been here.

He's a well built white dude but he's not actually all that good in run support. Moreover, he's damn athletic. He's not John Lynch out there; he's more of a Roy Williams type. Roy was never as good as I thought he'd be because he just wasn't all that sound. But holy hell was he athletic and aggressive. He wanted to smoke folks, he wanted to go looking to lay lumber where he could but he was oft times not where he needed to be because his aggression.

Sorensen is a lot like that. People want to act like he's this stout run-support box safety and he just isn't. Or that he's a lumbering oaf in coverage and that's not right either. What he is to my eyes is an old school strong safety who is a little better in coverage than the run but not comfortable in space enough to be where he SHOULD be athletically and that's a free safety.

His tackling is often overestimated and his range/athleticism is often underestimated. He's a weird cat who can play a handful of positions but not any of them terribly well, IMO.

[Dunerdr]

can we just stop to imagine what the sack numbers would look like if we had competent coverage more often early in the year?

[Toad]

Originally Posted by FringeNC

We definitely should take chances. Can Tom Brady really beat us over the top at his age in the bitter cold, dry, heavy air? Contest the short stuff.

By gawd someone needs to be constantly checking the pressure on the balls
#deflategate

[KChiefs1]

[milkman]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

If you can get Houston isolated on a guard, the play is essentially over.

They had Houston inside and sent Hitchens on a loop, IIRC. That pulled protection that could've helped out inside on Houston away and he just mauled that poor bastard guard (maybe it was the C). That interior lineman didn't have anywhere near the quickness to stay in front of him and Houston's hand-fighting skills are second to none.

He just slapped the punch away and ran right past him. And Houston will do that to just about any guard in the league. There were some really nice schematic adjustments/wrinkles on Saturday.

It really was a command performance pretty much across the board.

If they can generate some pressure on the interior with any combination of Jones, Nnadi, Ford and Houston, they can really disrupt what the Pats want to do on offense.

I expect that the blitz % will be the lowest we've seen in any game this season.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by KCtotheSB

I'm reaaaaaaaaaaalllly hoping that Ward and Lucas pan out.

They've played very well since coming in. I know guys like to give Ward a hard time for his first game vs Seattle, but I thought Wilson was tossing perfect throws against predominantly excellent coverage (particularly on there last drive).

I would argue that Baltimore's win over the LA Chargers in Week 16 enabled this secondary resurgence over the past few games. If the Chargers beat the Ravens, Reid might be more pressured into starting the known shitty veterans (Scandrick, Parker) vs Seattle and we'd never know what we had in Ward or Lucas. (We also wouldn't have the #1 seed also.)

It's still extremely early and all of this can still go to crap, but I feel better















about our defense (especially at home) then I have at any other point this season.

I completely agree with you on that Seattle game.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by milkman

If they can generate some pressure on the interior with any combination of Jones, Nnadi, Ford and Houston, they can really disrupt what the Pats want to do on offense.

I expect that the blitz % will be the lowest we've seen in any game this season.

Your expectation is likely to be reality.

DJ outlined how Sutton works against the Patriots. There's going to be a lot of 3 and 4-man rushes, which people hate, but that's how you defend New England.

In the past, those fronts looked terrible because we couldn't get pressure. Now with Nnadi improving, Houston playing lights out, and Chris Jones looking like he came from another planet, they can get pressure out of those fronts.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Your expectation is likely to be reality.

DJ outlined how Sutton works against the Patriots. There's going to be a lot of 3 and 4-man rushes, which people hate, but that's how you defend New England.

In the past, those fronts looked terrible because we couldn't get pressure. Now with Nnadi improving, Houston playing lights out, and Chris Jones looking like he came from another planet, they can get pressure out of those fronts.

What I've hated about Sutton's scheme in the past against Brady is the soft coverage in the secondary.

I'm hoping that the emergence of Ward and Lucas. and the return of Berry has them tighter on the LOS so they can affect the timing of routes.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by milkman

What I've hated about Sutton's scheme in the past against Brady is the soft coverage in the secondary.

I'm hoping that the emergence of Ward and Lucas. and the return of Berry has them tighter on the LOS so they can affect the timing of routes.

Well until this year, his scheme worked pretty well, most likely due to the present of said Eric Berry.

I think a lot of the problems this season were compensation for lack of talent on the backend. Sutton's biggest problem was not biting the bullet and getting the young guys in earlier.

But hey, they're in the AFC Championship game. It's all hindsight at this point.