The Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans will play on Sunday afternoon and the game more than likely will come down to the run defense. Both the Chiefs and Texans are top 10 in the NFL in rush offense and defense.
"This team we are getting ready to face has several good players and they have done a nice job with their running game," Chiefs defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel said on Friday. "They have a lot of double-digit runs. They break long ones so that is going to be a challenge for us to see if we can prevent the long run."
Ah, the big play. The 2009 Chiefs worst enemy.
The Texans are second in the NFL with seven 20-plus yard runs. They're also second in the NFL in runs over 40 yards. That means they're averaging a couple of 20-plus yard runs per game.
The good thing is that the Chiefs run defense is outstanding with their discipline and that's evidenced by the number of 20-plus yard runs they've given up....one. That's good for second in the NFL. They have not given up any runs over 40 yards. They're stopping the run and they're not melting down and giving up huge plays.
It the Texans game plan includes a heavy dose of running the ball, they better be prepared to grind it out all day. The Chiefs will make them get their yards at a clip of less than 20 yards per carry.