GIF'D UP: Chiefs defense vs. Saints

We all know about Justin Houston's three sacks in the Chiefs-Saints game. What may not have been obvious is that he easily could have had two more. If Drew Brees wasn't good at getting rid of the ball (say, if he was Matt Cassel), Houston would have won defensive player of the week.

First GIF: Houston is physically dominating Zach Strief, who has at least 50 pounds on Houston if not more. This is really, really impressive. Strief is no slouch.

In the second GIF, Houston beats Strief to the outside with a Tamba Hali-like move, and it's no contest. This is the Saints' last offensive snap in overtime, and Houston nearly ends the game with a safety or sack-strip TD. You can see how close he gets to Brees.

And speaking of Hali, he looked a lot better last week. He didn't get a sack, but on this play, he came within a half second of one. This looks like the Tamba Hali we're all used to.

Here's a nice speed rush from Hali. Again, if this was a lesser quarterback who couldn't evade pressure quite as well, Hali's got a sack here. Jermon Bushrod is frantically chasing Tamba. Eric Berry beats his blocker nicely on this play, too.

Now let's take a look at Jerrell Powe. Here he is basically eating Brian De La Puente alive, then he eats the running back and then bucks off Jovan Belcher, who wants a pony ride, evidently. This is by far my favorite GIF this week.

Here's Powe using De La Puente as a tackling dummy. Glenn Dorsey is also doing work in this GIF. I believe the last two plays are the very definition of being "Powened".

Finally, this snap isn't as impressive, but you can see Powe's strength at work here. He gets enough push to make the RB cut it back and Dorsey cleans up with the tackle on a pretty impressive play, actually, coming through Powe and his blocker.

Now let's take a look at something horrible. This is the play where the Saints scored an apparent touchdown (the call was reversed). For whatever reason, three weeks in a row now, we've had plays where we let receivers run wide open. Someone, somewhere, keeps blowing an assignment. On this play, we actually let TWO receivers get wide, wide open.

You can see in the screencap just how wide open Jimmy Graham was at the top of the screen. This has to stop if we're going to be a good defense.

Thankfully, the Chiefs managed to win anyway.

And now here's your gratuitous football violence GIF of the week: Ropati Pitoitua destroying Jermon Bushrod. Watch this over and over again and enjoy it.

Tyson Jackson approves.