I wrote a story earlier pointing out that Dee Ford made a big play late in the Chiefs-Chargers game with his sack of Philip Rivers. I also mentioned that we’ll get to the rest of Ford’s game, which was not as good as that sack.
The Chiefs pass rush was ... woof. It was not very good. Tamba Hali was a part time player coming in on mostly passing downs. He had three hurries in the game and that was the highlight of the Chiefs pass rush.
Pro Football Focus says the Chiefs had seven hurries against the Chargers offensive line on 41 pass rush attempts. Even that seems generous as it certainly didn’t feel like seven.
This will be a problem down the stretch. Earlier in the day ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Chiefs are projecting Justin Houston to be back sometime in November, which would be around Week 9-12. That’s a lot of games the Chiefs are going to have to play without a solid pass rush. Tamba Hali is already a part time player so they need depth yet they cut Dezman Moses last weekend for some reason.
I’m not really sure the solution here. As World Champion Royals manager Ned Yost would probably say, there is no pass rusher tree. You don’t find these guys on the street in September. One idea could be to get Chris Jones more than 12 snaps as he’s shown more pass rush ability than others on the line. Other than that ... I don’t know. What can the Chiefs do?