The Chiefs Defense Did (Almost) Everything It Could Against the Raiders
by Chris Thorman on Sep 22, 2009 7:02 AM CDT
in 2009 Kansas City Chiefs Campaign
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PrintSay what you will about the Oakland Raiders offense and JaMarcus Russel, the Kansas City Chiefs defense played a spectacular game.
With the exception of the Raiders final go-ahead scoring drive in the fourth quarter. Which accounted for 42% of their offensive yards, as Josh Looney noted.
The Raider had eleven drives on offense on Sunday. On seven of them, they didn't record a first down. The Raiders only had eleven total first downs for day. (The Chiefs racked up 25 first downs which is just awesome to see)
Just how dominant were the Chiefs on defense on Sunday? Read more, after the jump.
Pass defense
Even though Raiders QB JaMarcus Russell was 7/24 for only 109 yards, I'm not going to say that was because of the Chiefs D hard play. I mean, it was. But those are Russell's normal numbers so we'll take a pass for now.
Russell was lucky he didn't throw a pick six to Brandon Flowers, which would have been the icing on the cake of his terrible numbers today.
The Chiefs had 7 pass deflections too, which were a big part of Russell's 17 incompletions. Most notable of those deflections were a tipped deep pass by Maurice Legget after the Bowe TD and Glenn Dorsey batting down a Russell pass near the Oakland goal line.
Final Raider stats: 109 passing yards, 7/24, 7 pass deflections
QB pressure
Forget about any comparison's to last season's year of futility pressuring the quarterback. The Chiefs had two sacks and two QB hurries against the Raiders. Derrick Johnson's sack in the first quarter was a drive killer but the Chiefs second sack was negated by a Wallace Gilberry personal foul. That personal foul negated what would have been 2nd and 18 for the Raiders. On their final scoring drive.
Chiefs QB pressure stats: 2 sacks, 2 QB hurries
Run defense
Last season in Week 2, the Chiefs gave up 300 yards rushing to Raiders. Today, the Chiefs run defense stifled Darren McFadden and Michael Bush for a Raider total of only 67 yards rushing.
Final Raider rushing stats: 61 yards on 25 attempts
Third down conversions
The Raiders were looking like the Chiefs on third downs - 3/13 (23%). Here's how the Raiders third downs went, well, down. It's more than 13 plays because I counted the penalties, which are actually tallied as no play.
- Incomplete pass (7)
- DJ sack
- 1st down pass
- KC penalty for 1st down
- Oakland penalty
- 1-yard run
- 1st down run
- Oakland penalty
- 28-yard first down pass
- Kneel for -1 yards
Each incomplete pass and Derrick Johnson's first quarter sack were drive killers. The Chiefs dominated the Raiders on third down.
Total domination
Before I get into the one drive that actually beat the Kansas City Chiefs, here is a chart comparison of all the areas of this game the Chiefs led in .I'm literally going stat by stat on the game book, with no bias whatsoever.
| Chiefs | Raiders | |
| First downs | x | |
| 3rd down % | x | |
| Total yards | x | |
| Total off. Plays | x | |
| Avg. gain per play | x | |
| Rush yds. | x | |
| Rush plays | x | |
| Tackles for loss | x | |
| Pass yds | x | |
| Pass comp. % | x | |
| Punt avg. | x | |
| Penalities | x | |
| Field goals | x | |
| Red zone efficiency | x | |
| T.O.P | x |
(Sigh)
The Raiders only needed one drive
It was so sad that as well as the Chiefs' defense played against the Raiders, it was one Oakland scoring drive in the fourth quarter that lost the game for KC.
With 2:30 left in the football game and the Chiefs up by four points, all they needed to do was what they had been doing pretty much all day - frustrate JaMarcus Russell, stop the run.
Three plays in a row really put the Raiders into Chiefs territory and gave them hope that they could score a TD.
On the third play of the drive, JaMarcus Russel hit Louis Murphy for 19 yards. Immediately after that, the Chiefs sack Russell on 1st and 15 but Chiefs DE Wallace Gilberry committed a personal foul. And a questionable one at that.
1st and 18 just disappeared into a 15 yard gain. I almost got sick to my stomach at that point.
An 11-yard pass to Darren McFadden after that and boom, the Raiders are in Kansas City territory. Only took twenty seconds too.
A couple of incompletes and an Oakland false start later, the Chiefs had the Raiders right where they wanted them - 3rd and 15.
And, as I just watched this next play, I can't believe how open WR Todd Watkins was to get that 28-yard catch that put the Raiders on the Chiefs' 14-yard line.
Just a total breakdown across the middle and it costs the Chiefs the game. Wow.
You know the rest. McFadden. McFadden. Touchdown. Chiefs lose.
Question
If the Chiefs stop JaMarcus Russell from completing that 28-yard pass to Todd Watkins, do the Chiefs win? Oh yes, I think they do.
What happened on that play?
Football games come down to a handful of plays that win or lose them for teams. The Chiefs had more losing plays than the Raiders.
Defense is pretty darn good
The pass rush is there and developing. Brandon Flowers is emerging as a top corner. I like how our defensive line is playing together as a unit. There aren't any stars yet per se but it's easly.
So, the Chiefs defense does almost everything it can to win the game for KC. Almost. Unfortunately, almost isn't good enough.
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Defensive line
The defensive line was much improved this game, specifically Glenn Dorsey and Tank Tyler. I have posted before that Tank has good strength combined with good mobility, his weakness being holding the double teams like a true NT does. What Tank did this past week could vault him into a true #1 NT if he continues to get such a great jump on the snap. All those tackles he was making 3 to 4 yards down field in previous games because of his mobility might just start being at the line of scrimmage or in the backfield if he keeps up his explosiveness off the ball (impressive…but let’s wait for some constancy) .
Glenn Dorsey has turned into a good run defender. It is looking more and more like if Dorsey cannot earn a longtime job at the Chiefs right DE then he can catch on with another team and be of great value. He still is somewhat of a liability at the right DE spot when it comes to pass rush…but again, his run defense is coming around nicely.
Bewsaf
Best game of GDs career.
That whole line is starting to show what it can do. If T-Jax can get it together this season, we will see what SHOULD become a dominant defensive front.
by Chiefsfan1970 on Sep 22, 2009 8:47 AM CDT up reply actions
D was awesome, and I don't think it's fair to blame that unit for the loss
The O is as much to blame, in the sense that they only scored 10 points
it’s a team game, not one player, not one unit, but the entire team – great game overall by both sides of the ball – just turned out to be one of those days
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisiton!
It's the ying and yang of football
The offense:
1. Helped the Defense look good, by hogging the ball for 40 mins.
2. Made Oakland’s Defense look bad, by wearing them down for 40 mins.
but…
Also lost the game, with Cassel’s two interceptions and not getting the FG off in the waning mins of the first half. Cassel was trying to force both of those balls, he had successfully forced balls into traffic all day long and got a little too risky. And the clock management meltdown is all on the “O”.
Given enough time in any game...
A bad team, like the Raiders or the Lions, will be given the opportunity to get a touchdown. Had we come away with more points every time we were in the redzone then that Raider touchdown wouldn’t have mattered too much. Looking at what the Raiders did to the Chargers last week I was afraid they would run all over us at will. But with only 61 rushing yards for the Raiders how can we not be impressed?
by RA_ChiefsFan on Sep 22, 2009 8:40 AM CDT up reply actions
because we did not win
and because the worst qb in the NFL led the winning drive
The only measure of true success in the NFL is the Vince Lombardi trophy. Anything less is a rationalization.
I have said this on other posts
Compared to last year I have been impressed with the Chiefs, People were talking about all the good things the Raiders did against SD, and the Chiefs did a very good job taking those things out of the game. The RB’s were held the TE didn’t have a catch and everyone was saying their new toy from NE would be even better after having a full week to practice, and I barley heard his name. A lot of things have changed but the main thing that hasn’t is the Chiefs still seem to find a way to give the game away.
Herm is gone things are better with that one move!!
by bringbacktheglory on Sep 22, 2009 7:54 AM CDT reply actions
I heard his name a lot
When the announcers said he wasn’t in the game.
About the Chiefs: I'd rather be a realist than a pessimist
by Red N Gold Beast on Sep 22, 2009 9:36 AM CDT up reply actions
Their TE Zack Miller played in the game.
The Chiefs just shut him down. Or maybe you were talking about Richard Seymour, but he was in the game too, he just had to sit out a lot because the Chiefs wore him out.
Herm is gone things are better with that one move!!
by bringbacktheglory on Sep 22, 2009 9:53 AM CDT up reply actions
I was talking about Seymour
Every time I heard his name it was either “Seymour is not in on this play” or “Seymour is lined up in the (insert random DL position)”.
You have to hand it to the OL. They did a good job containing Seymour and Ellis.
About the Chiefs: I'd rather be a realist than a pessimist
by Red N Gold Beast on Sep 22, 2009 10:08 AM CDT up reply actions
It'll turn around eventually
You can’t have a team that is continually playing well and still loses games. Eventually this will turn around and all the effort this team is putting in will pay dividends.
Matt C. just had his first game and he still needs to learn the new offense. Once he gets into his rhythm with the WRs, this team will definitely win some games and I think we will win against some of the teams that we aren’t supposed to beat.
That was the best defensive performance I have seen from the Chiefs for a Looong time. I hope it wasn’t a fluke. The Raiders have a very respectable rushing attack and the Chiefs snuffed it out. If we can do that against these NFC East teams that love to run the ball, we may pull out a win or two.
Except you CAN'T exclude that last drive
because they had the game in their hands and could not control the worst quarterback in the NFL, when it mattered most.
The only measure of true success in the NFL is the Vince Lombardi trophy. Anything less is a rationalization.
I am NOT denying the fact that we lost the game...to the freakin Raiders even!
I’m just saying, when was the last time we held a team to 166 yards of total offense for a half, let alone a full game???
We lost the game because of offensive miscues, NOT because of the defense. Yeah, we needed them to come through but, when your offense puts up as many yards as we did, you HAVE to get points. We did not do that. Cassel showed that he has tools to get it done though. This offense looks better all the time and we WILL start putting up some points. If our defense keeps playing like that and we get the improvement that I expect from the offense, we should start winning some games very soon.
Even though Cassel made some mistakes, I LOVE the heart that he plays with. Dude is a competitor and I have no doubt that he will do whatever he has to do to win.
by Chiefsfan1970 on Sep 22, 2009 9:14 AM CDT up reply actions
Yeah, they only got 166 yds of offense ... but ...
it WAS the Raiders – one of the most inept offensive teams in football, with arguably the worst QB in football – to say the Chiefs are worldbeaters based on THAT is ridiculuous, just as it’s ridiculous to say the Chiefs are the worst team in football based on the season opener at Baltimore when they got their collective heads bashed in
the “truth” – whatever it is – lies somewhere in between
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisiton!
the good
Tackling…been a while since we saw some consistency in one of the most basic parts of the game.
The bad…still zero pass rush in the base D. A marginal rush in blitz packages. Maybe I’m too used to DT but we need serious improvement here.
by Ren on Sep 22, 2009 8:58 AM CDT via mobile reply actions
One thing I will never understand
is why do teams go into the prevent defense at the end of games? If your defense has been holding a team the whole game why change at the end?
Herm is gone things are better with that one move!!
by bringbacktheglory on Sep 22, 2009 9:39 AM CDT reply actions
It's called the "Prevent Defense" because it often prevents you from winning
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisiton!
I agree
but if us fans can see that why can’t the coach’s?
Herm is gone things are better with that one move!!
by bringbacktheglory on Sep 22, 2009 12:26 PM CDT up reply actions
Maybe ... playing NOT TO LOSE instead of PLAYING TO WIN? Dunno ...
say, haven’t we heard that before? hmmmm …
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisiton!
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