The Chiefs pass rush should make life difficult for Lions QB Matthew Stafford

The Kansas City Chiefs SHOULD be able to get to QB Matthew Stafford this weekend when they meet the Detroit Lions in London on Sunday. The Lions are coming off a disastrous offensive line performance last week against the Minnesota Vikings where they gave up a whopping seven sacks. It's almost like he was Alex Smith back there!

Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus has a nice piece breaking down all of the Vikings sacks on Stafford last week, and seems to conclude that this was largely a coaching issue.

Watching this game is like a coaching snuff film. Showing double A-gap blitz, clearly cant pick up. Run play action pic.twitter.com/vMoXUZevAR

— Sam Monson (@PFF_Sam) October 27, 2015

Relevant here is that the Lions fired their offensive coordinator after that game. Former Chiefs assistant Jim Bob Cooter (yes, he knows how funny that name is) is the new offensive coordinator. What will the Lions change? Anything? Everything? That's part of the challenge here for the Chiefs because you gotta believe the Lions change something after changing coordinators considering Stafford was getting pressured on nearly 40 percent of his dropbacks.

"I don't think it will switch too much, it's been one week and they haven't had time to put in their new stuff," Chiefs LB Justin Houston said from London on Friday. "We're preparing like we normally prepare for a team. I don't think they will switch up too much. They may switch up a little defense, but for the most part, they run the same offense."

Tamba Hali is coming off the best game of his season with two sacks and a forced fumble. On the other hand, Justin Houston has just one sack in the last five games which is ... crazy. You'd have to go back to 2012 to find a five-game stretch where Houston had just one sack. He's still making an impact on the game by pressuring the quarterback but he isn't getting those sacks that he was getting last year. There will be extra attention paid to Houston so Tamba has to take advantage of that this weekend. Tamba is listed as questionable but it sounds like he should play.

This also seems relevant for Dontari Poe:

Soooo…the Lions don't have a top 32 center. Important note: there are 32 teams in the NFL. https://t.co/iHmdUzAwpc

— Josh Mansour (@joshmansour) October 29, 2015

The Lions are optimistic they can handle the Chiefs pass rush but the Chiefs can do this. They can win this game with the pass rush.