How do you beat the 2019 Kansas City Chiefs?

[Dante84]

I am curious how teams will try to attack us this year. In my opinion, there are only 3 things that can prevent us from having a Super Bowl Season (and 1 very low odds thing).

I'm really pumped for 2019.

1. Injury to the NFL MVP Risk: Medium
Why: Duh.

2. Passes to the boundaries (CB) deep corners (CB) and over the short-middle (LB's). Risk: Medium
Why: So far, it seems we have improved against the Run, we still can produce pressure, and our safety play has improved drastically.

Because of the hole at CB, these areas of the defense are our most vulnerable, IMO, which isn't a bad thing, all things considered:
- By itself, taking the time to throw deep corners all game is not sustainable and will result in a lot of incompletions and sacks. That means more Time of Possession for the Chiefs' offense.
- By itself, throwing WR screens won't work all game, and will mean more Time of Possession for the Chiefs' offense.
- By itself, the short middle of the field means throwing into Chris Jones' paws and risking tipped ball INT's. It's not sustainable all game.

All together, those three approaches have me worried, because dinking and dunking will move the chains and can drain the clock.

3. Injury to the NFL's #1 TE Risk: medium
Why: This will force us to look to other areas of the field and position groups for production. That would make us less dimensional on offense than say, a WR going down. I wish we would have addressed the huge hole at TE2 - not for the production, but for the insurance against injury.


4. Reid's health Risk: Low
Why: His playcalling is critical to our success. His health is terrible. God forbid something happen, that could derail the season.


What else has you guys worried?
What would you do if you had to play against us?

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Originally Posted by rabblerouser

I thought Belichick already mapped this out :

Defense : Rush the passer through the A gap.

Offense : Run the ball to keep the passer on the sidelines

Rams beat us a different way, you guys forget. Besides his plan fails if not for 3 absolutely ridiculous calls in his favor. Actually all 4 of the losses had complete bogus penalties/calls paving the way for our loss...

[dlphg9]

Originally Posted by rabblerouser

I thought Belichick already mapped this out :

Defense : Rush the passer through the A gap.

Offense : Run the ball to keep the passer on the sidelines

Still scored 30 in a half twice against them, so maybe it stopped us for a bit, but Patrick is great at figuring out a defense. I think we play those games again we win and PMII shreds those defenses.

[JakeF]

Run the ball, keep Mahomes off the field

Play a 3-deep zone on defense, force the Chiefs to run the ball the length of the field.

Get a turnover or two and the pressure on the Chiefs' offense would be huge.

[crayzkirk]

Just do what the Patriots did:

- run the ball
- mug the receivers

Both games, the Patriots relied on the officials to not call holding. Kelce and Hill were both mugged.

[Zebedee DuBois]

Belichick beat the KC 2018 team twice.

Until we prove otherwise, he has our number.

I like our chances.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Basically, Seattle was the only legit loss the team had all year. Took Absolute horseshit calls in the other 3...

[FAX]

Bait us into penalties.

That's pretty much the only way you're going to accomplish this objective. The 2019 Chiefs should be an historic team.

Proof of the puddin' is in the tasting, though. The players appear to be confident and I have no reason to doubt their thinking in this respect.

As for TOP, I disagree completely that it's an unimportant stat. We all know the tropes (can't score if you don't have the ball, etc.), but the main problem with a quick-strike offense is the pressure it puts on your defense. Dudes get tired and we lack quality depth on that side of the ball. Never pass up a touchdown when it's there, but extended drives benefit us in a variety of ways. That shouldn't be a problem, however, since Kelce is a walking first down. Plus, we may see the best screen team to ever play the game in the 2019 Chiefs.

Assuming we get the penalties under control, the only way to beat us is to rush 3 and drop 8 on defense. And good luck with that. Offensively, the enemy has to score 36 points a game. Good luck with that, too.

FAX

[KCUnited]

Yukon steal a game if the refs are on your side.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by crayzkirk

Just do what the Patriots did:

- run the ball
- mug the receivers

Both games, the Patriots relied on the officials to not call holding. Kelce and Hill were both mugged.

In general, I can't disagree with this assessment, Mr. crayzkirk.

I fully expect Wally to deal with that particular issue this year, however. The 2nd half of the AFCCG proved that to me.

FAX

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

Yukon steal a game if the refs are on your side.

[Chief Roundup]

The only loss that matters is the one in the post-season. We will be playing teams that can matriculate the ball down the field. They will have defenses that can slow our O down. They will be able to keep our O on the bench while wearing our D down even more after a long season of them being on the field.

[keg in kc]

Score more than 30 points. It's the only way.

Running the ball won't work, whether the Chiefs run defense is better or not (although it is). The Chiefs will answer your 15 play drive with a 3 play score. They don't give a shit about time of possession.

Possession passing down the middle of the field won't work. Same reason.

The only way to beat this team is to get enough quick scores to survive the onslaught. To match them on the scoreboard. Because points are the only thing that matter. Clock is irrelevant. Your defense is not going to stop them, not enough for it to make a difference.

Good luck.

[Megatron96]

This has probably been said, but the strategy seems to be consistent:

Keep the Chiefs offense off the field as much as possible. Usually this means an effective run game. But basically keep the sticks moving and be efficient in the red zone/scoring areas.

Minimize penalties. The Chiefs take a lot of penalties; if a team can keep these to a minimum, the Chiefs just might shoot themselves in the foot with a few critical ones in the course of a game.

On defense, take Hill and Kelce away as much as possible. Opposing teams should probably take whatever the Chiefs running game delivers as the price of doing business, and focus on taking away Hill foremost, and Kelce inside the 30. To make this work, teams need to get penetration through the A-gaps consistently to force Mahomes to run out of the back of the pocket, eliminating his ability to step up into the pocket. This in and of itself isn't a winning formula, as we saw last year, but allowing Mahomes to just step up and either make a throw or run is a disastrous potentiality for opposing Ds, so make him run away from the line-of-scrimmage, so they only have to worry about his arm.

This formula seemed to work for the Pats last year for a total of nearly 5 quarters out of 8. Also seemed to work out for the Ravens for almost 3 quarters, and for the Seahawks. And if you look at a couple other games where the Chiefs only scored 26 or 27 points against the Broncs and the second game against the Raiders, it looked they they tried the same things.

The problem for any team is being able to hold the Chiefs offense to a minimum of possessions and take away their efficiency for an entire game. Or at least long enough to secure a win.

[MOhillbilly]

Kill the head

[patyoulikemahomes]

Unfortunately Tom Brady and company will find a way en route to another Super Bowl victory.