Where's the Rush?

by TheQ on Oct 1, 2008 10:41 PM CDT

3 Sacks through 4 games. 3 whole sacks, good enough for second to last overall in the league. Starting Defensive Ends Turk and Tamba have 0 sacks. Linebacker Derrick Johnson, reigning AFC Defensive Player of the Week, is the team leader with 1 sack! Johnston and Boone, our back up DEs, have contributed a sack each.

Slow start? Scheme? Lackluster interior line play? Afraid to blitz in fear of exposing our young secondary? By design (sacks no good!)? Superior competition? Gunther's losing it? Slow D lineman? 69 is not here anymore? We'll get 'em next week!? We don't need to blitz, we beat the Broncos!

OK, maybe some of this is true, maybe not. But our lack of "Pressure" is certainly something that we cannot overlook! I am sure that there is a lot of contributing factors, and I think we can start to see some improvement in this area as the season progresses.

I really like Turk McBride and the intensity that he is bringing to our team. If he continues to keep playing the high energy style that he has so far, good things will happen for him. I would not be surprised if he had a 2 or 3 sack game this season.

Tambi truly has struggled and it seems to be a nagging knee injury that is slowing him down. His numbers the last two years say that he is a servicable DE, but those came from the other side with JA in the mix. Can he get healthy and contribute to our young D Line? I hope so.

Johnston is exciting because pretty much every Chief fan I know is hoping that we catch lightning in a bottle twice and he ends up being JA squared. He is too raw and inexperienced to truly see what we have with him. He definitely is in the "hopeful" category.

Boone is a Defensive Tackle. Boone is a Defensive Tackle. Rotational at that. But he did play an inspired game last week and contributed to our victory.

#5 pick overall Big Glen Dorsey is starting to get it figured out. He has as much potential as anyone to bring home some sack numbers this season, I am just not sure if our scheme will help put him in position to do it. Gap control seems to be VERY IMPORTANT to Gunther, and after seeing our pourous run defense, I totally understand.

I suppose you have to learn to walk before you can run, what do you have to learn before you start to Blitz?

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.

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Hali

is the topic of dicussion once again. Out of a 1st rounder you simply want more than " a serviceable DE". I like the guy a lot and still believe in him. Refuse to believe in the “B” word. Jut wondering at what point are we forced to think about making changes. Perhaps he’s just a natural LE…

by KansasCityShuffle on Oct 1, 2008 11:08 PM CDT 0 recs

Perhaps

or perhaps we will be looking at DEs in the draft next year?

by TheQ on Oct 1, 2008 11:16 PM CDT 0 recs

Hali

Maybe he needs more games at right end but I’m really beginning to think he is just more suited to left end.

by dklogue1 on Oct 1, 2008 11:22 PM CDT 0 recs

I don't like it

He’s had 4 regular season games and I’ve heard some already calling for Michael Johnson from Georgia Tech out of next years draft. Let’s get one thing straight about Hali and that is he’s certainly no bust. Others say he did well last year just because of Allen. I think he just needs more time playing at his new position before we get overly critical

What do you suggest? Switch Hali back to LE and move McBride to RE? The way McBride’s been playing I just dont like to mess w/ a good thing. But I think thats maybe what we’ll be coming to at the end of season

by KansasCityShuffle on Oct 1, 2008 11:27 PM CDT 0 recs

I personally

think Hali is not bothered so much by the change of sides, rather the fact that he is not completely healthy. I played DE and it is not that hard to move up and down the D line like it may be for O lineman. How hard is it to pin your ears back and go? But Tamba’s knee was slowing him down so much the other day they were using Johnston on obvious passing downs. The problem is we are not very deep at the DE position. With 20/20 hindsight we would have re-signed Wilkerson.

by TheQ on Oct 1, 2008 11:33 PM CDT up 0 recs

I always liked Jimmy

Wish we would have kept him too. Funny how we let go vets like him and Mitchell that could contribute to this team now, yet we seemingly replace them with…who?

I think we’ll draft another DE next year. I’m hoping our ILB, RT, QB, and DE questions will be answered thru next years draft too. But I hear a lot of people say they draft by best player on board so who knows what we’ll get…

by KansasCityShuffle on Oct 1, 2008 11:50 PM CDT up 0 recs

+1

Wilkerson was someone I consistantly rooted for…

by KCFanatic on Oct 2, 2008 5:30 PM CDT up 0 recs

Dorsey would have sacked Cutler

but the left guard held him (and it was called) – that guy did everything in his power to keep Dorsey from eating Jay like a box of doughnuts Cutler can’t touch =)

by PVChiefsfan on Oct 2, 2008 7:36 AM CDT 0 recs

Jimmy Wilkerson is a good-ish backup

Let’s not fall in love with our “ex”. Through four games in Tampa Bay, Wilkerson has 6 tackles and 1 sack. So he is on pace for 24 tackles and 4 sacks. About what you’d expect out of backup defensive lineman that gets some opportunities on third-down. I am not sure what TB is paying him, but it doesn’t seem like we made a HUGE mistake letting him go elsewhere.

(By the way, this is all in “my opinion”, but I am not going to write IMO because it should be obvious it is in my opinion. It is not like “God” told me this and I just channeling “his” spirit. Click here to support the “Ban IMO” movement.)

by pleaseblock on Oct 2, 2008 10:07 AM CDT 1 recs

I think that's all they were saying...

I’m a WIlkerson fan, but I never saw him as anything but a backup… I think they were saying that we could use a warm body that could give McBride and Hali a breather… Wilkerson was actually pretty good at that, and seems to be doing that at TB now…

by KCFanatic on Oct 2, 2008 5:33 PM CDT up 0 recs

Ban it ??

I just found out what it meant (thanks to my son :)

by Cat Stabber on Oct 3, 2008 5:31 PM CDT up 0 recs

Hali

In several games I have spent time watch just Hali and my biggest concern about him at RE is that when I just watch him he is getting blown up by the LT he is facing. If we had been facing All pro LTs this season then I wouldn’t be bothered but he has been going against backups and rookie LTs and still not producing.

One thing is that he seems really small when on the right side, I don’t know why but that is just how he looks to me. Part of his problem too is I think he puts too much pressure on himself and it is making him tight and not just playing the game. When players are alway going for the home run they strike out a lot, he needs to just focus on his game and let the sacks take care of themselves.

Now if by the end of the year he only has 2 or 3 sacks and he is healthy then I think we have to look at some options.

by tevans96 on Oct 2, 2008 11:23 AM CDT 0 recs

Another thing

and I’m not sure why we did it (but it worked)

We seemed to adopt the mindset that if we dropped enough people, we could cover DEN receivers no matter how much time Cutler got. We only blitzed a few times that game, and I saw us only rushing three and dropping 8 occasionally. Most of the game we just rushed 4 and dropped 7. Would it be great if we could get consistent pressure with our front four? yes, but realize that not many teams in the NFL can do that.

by PVChiefsfan on Oct 2, 2008 12:35 PM CDT 0 recs

It seems that when we play better quarterbacks

the Chiefs really sit back in their Nickel and Dime defenses and try to not give up the big play. Much harder to get a sack in that defense. The interesting part is we did get only the second sack of Cutler this season! His line has protected him quite well. I line in contrast has given up 12 sacks in 4 games. Not good.

by TheQ on Oct 2, 2008 2:08 PM CDT up 0 recs