The DL is more self-suffient.

[Direckshun]

Some factoids about our passrush:

The Chiefs ended the year 2nd in the league in sacks, with 55 total.

Jones had 15.5 -- ridiculous.
The next four top sack-rackers were our DEs, which I guess is good. Karlaftis 6, Clark 5, Danna 5, Dunlap 4.

Saunders/Wharton/Williams combined for 5 sacks on the season.

The blitzers put up 14.5 all year.

7 from the LBs.
7.5 from the DBs.

I noticed around the bye week that blitzers accounted for roughly a third of our sacks. I haven't looked up pressures, but I'm going to assume the numbers are similar there.

End of the season, they accounted for 26% of our sacks.

The number dropped exactly for the reason you think:

Week 12 vs. Rams: 3 total sacks, 1 from blitz
Week 13 vs Bengals: 1 total sack, 0 from blitz
Week 14 vs. Broncos: 6 total sacks, 1.5 from blitz
Week 15 vs. Texans: 1 total sack, 0 from blitz
Week 16 vs. Seahawks: 2 total sacks, 0 from blitz
Week 17 vs. Broncos: 4 total sacks, 1 from blitz
Week 18 vs. Raiders: 6 total sacks, 1 from blitz

The last seven games of the season, blitzes accounted for 4.5 out of 23 sacks, or 19%.

I don't know if Spags is blitzing less, or if the blitzes are getting less effective.

I think the biggest factor is that the DL is rushing somewhat more effectively, led by Jones and Karlaftis.
--> In that same 7 week timespan, Jones has put up 6.5 sacks, and Karlaftis has put up 5.5 sacks.

Considering how important it's going to be to beat Burrow (and maybe Allen?) without blitzing, that's a very big development for the defense.

[Eleazar]

Quality of opponents is definitely in play here.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by AdolfOliverBush

The '03 Chiefs?

Okay, yeah. I thought about it a minute after I posted; of course, there's plenty of instances where that isn't true. All you need to start down a bad road is a DC that can't adjust to the opposition. Everything could snowball from there. But in general, it should be true.

[DenverChief]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Some factoids about our passrush:

The Chiefs ended the year 2nd in the league in sacks, with 55 total.

Jones had 15.5 -- ridiculous.
The next four top sack-rackers were our DEs, which I guess is good. Karlaftis 6, Clark 5, Danna 5, Dunlap 4.

Saunders/Wharton/Williams combined for 5 sacks on the season.

The blitzers put up 14.5 all year.

7 from the LBs.
7.5 from the DBs.

I noticed around the bye week that blitzers accounted for roughly a third of our sacks. I haven't looked up pressures, but I'm going to assume the numbers are similar there.

End of the season, they accounted for 26% of our sacks.

The number dropped exactly for the reason you think:

Week 12 vs. Rams: 3 total sacks, 1 from blitz
Week 13 vs Bengals: 1 total sack, 0 from blitz
Week 14 vs. Broncos: 6 total sacks, 1.5 from blitz
Week 15 vs. Texans: 1 total sack, 0 from blitz
Week 16 vs. Seahawks: 2 total sacks, 0 from blitz
Week 17 vs. Broncos: 4 total sacks, 1 from blitz
Week 18 vs. Raiders: 6 total sacks, 1 from blitz

The last seven games of the season, blitzes accounted for 4.5 out of 23 sacks, or 19%.

I don't know if Spags is blitzing less, or if the blitzes are getting less effective.

I think the biggest factor is that the DL is rushing somewhat more effectively, led by Jones and Karlaftis.
--> In that same 7 week timespan, Jones has put up 6.5 sacks, and Karlaftis has put up 5.5 sacks.

Considering how important it's going to be to beat Burrow (and maybe Allen?) without blitzing, that's a very big development for the defense.

171 Total

Jones - 40
Clark - 23
Karlaftis - 20
Dunlap - 17
Danna - 16
Sneed - 10
Saunders - 8
Bolton - 7
Wharton - 5
Reid - 4
Gay - 4
Cook - 3
Chenal - 3
Thornhill - 2
McDuffie - 2
Harris - 2
B. Williams - 2
J. Williams - 1
Fenton - 1
Stallworth - 1

[DenverChief]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Some factoids about our passrush:

The Chiefs ended the year 2nd in the league in sacks, with 55 total.

Jones had 15.5 -- ridiculous.
The next four top sack-rackers were our DEs, which I guess is good. Karlaftis 6, Clark 5, Danna 5, Dunlap 4.

Saunders/Wharton/Williams combined for 5 sacks on the season.

The blitzers put up 14.5 all year.

7 from the LBs.
7.5 from the DBs.

I noticed around the bye week that blitzers accounted for roughly a third of our sacks. I haven't looked up pressures, but I'm going to assume the numbers are similar there.

End of the season, they accounted for 26% of our sacks.

The number dropped exactly for the reason you think:

Week 12 vs. Rams: 3 total sacks, 1 from blitz
Week 13 vs Bengals: 1 total sack, 0 from blitz
Week 14 vs. Broncos: 6 total sacks, 1.5 from blitz
Week 15 vs. Texans: 1 total sack, 0 from blitz
Week 16 vs. Seahawks: 2 total sacks, 0 from blitz
Week 17 vs. Broncos: 4 total sacks, 1 from blitz
Week 18 vs. Raiders: 6 total sacks, 1 from blitz

The last seven games of the season, blitzes accounted for 4.5 out of 23 sacks, or 19%.

I don't know if Spags is blitzing less, or if the blitzes are getting less effective.

I think the biggest factor is that the DL is rushing somewhat more effectively, led by Jones and Karlaftis.
--> In that same 7 week timespan, Jones has put up 6.5 sacks, and Karlaftis has put up 5.5 sacks.

Considering how important it's going to be to beat Burrow (and maybe Allen?) without blitzing, that's a very big development for the defense.

I think the reason for the less blitzing is the addition of B. Williams combined with Karlaftis being more of a threat which frees up Jones from double teams. Additionally, the rookies in the secondary are really getting it now and fully capable of covering their guy for 4-5 seconds which allows the DL to disrupt the pocket and make the QB move AND decide what he wants to do. There is less of a need to blitz now.

[Ming the Merciless]

it's so ****ing awesome that karlaftis is getting hot right at the perfect time.

and Dunlop has had a very amazing season too.

everything coming together nicely.

I am looking forward to these guys getting tested by a playoff team

[blake5676]

Originally Posted by Hank Hill

Danna seems to have a knack for knocking the ball loose when he gets to the QB. I really like him.

I was actually surprised seeing his numbers in this thread. Five sacks and 16 pressures. I would've guessed higher on both those numbers. He's one of the sneakier guys on the team that I feel like consistently gets a little underrated. We've gotten some really solid value out of the guy thus far.

[xztop123]

I wouldn’t be surprised if Williams has helped a lot.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Razaele

Quality of opponents is definitely in play here.

I think this is basically defenses in a nutshell though.

They're good until they play elite offenses.

[BleedingRed]

Originally Posted by O.city

I think this is basically defenses in a nutshell though.

They're good until they play elite offenses.

Yeah but I have high hopes for this defense going forward. The fact that we have seen marginal- to great defense from our DB's while they are so young.

Our safety play has drastically improved.

Next year tho has a chance to be special defense, like a legit top 10. Just need to find another edge rusher to replace Clark.

But I knew this year would be a learning year.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by BleedingRed

Yeah but I have high hopes for this defense going forward. The fact that we have seen marginal- to great defense from our DB's while they are so young.

Our safety play has drastically improved.

Next year tho has a chance to be special defense, like a legit top 10. Just need to find another edge rusher to replace Clark.

But I knew this year would be a learning year.

Yeah, you probably need a few more guys to round it out, but there's potential.

[Red Dawg]

They have been better at pass rush but we play better teams in the playoffs. I was unimpressed when we played the Chargers, Bengals and Buffalo. We gotta be able to get home against them but we did get Lawence more so hopefully we play them if not the dream game of the Ravens.

[DJ's left nut]

Just get to Burrow.

The rest is masturbating.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why this team cannot touch Joe Burrow. The rest of the league beats him like a rented mule when they send 3 and yet we can't even get his damn jersey dirty when we send 6.

I don't get it and at this point I don't even care what the cause is. Fix it. Go hit that MFer. The rest will sort itself out.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Say what you want but this was a fantastic draft pick for a day 3 guy

Is anyone saying anything BUT that?

I believe you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who's down on Mike Danna.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Just get to Burrow.

The rest is masturbating.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why this team cannot touch Joe Burrow. The rest of the league beats him like a rented mule when they send 3 and yet we can't even get his damn jersey dirty when we send 6.

I don't get it and at this point I don't even care what the cause is. Fix it. Go hit that MFer. The rest will sort itself out.

This this this this.

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by O.city

I think this is basically defenses in a nutshell though.

They're good until they play elite offenses.

While true, I only meant to say that what's being cast as improvement here is mostly attributable to the easy back half of our schedule.