FanPost

Chiefs in the Trenches: Cardinals

Week ten against the Cardinals was like two side of a coin for the Chiefs up front. The offensive line had one of its worst performances of the season (sounds worse than it was), while the defensive line showed up and showed out in a big way with one of the better games they have had this year.


The offensive line struggled to keep Mahomes clean in the pocket against the Cardinals, allowing five sacks in a game for the first time in 2018. Chandler Jones left his prints on this game with two sacks and multiple pressures on Mahomes. Austin Reiter had a rough game at center for the Chiefs, his athleticism is proving to be a hindrance and his footwork has been shotty at best.


Eric Fisher’s name hadn’t been mentioned much before the Cardinals game and for a lineman that’s a good thing. He has played well this year but had a poor game against Chandler Jones and, unfortunately for Mahomes, it showed up in the box score and in Fisher’s footwork.


The Chiefs were able to move the ball at will against the Cardinals, but plays like this on third down traded touchdowns for field goals early in the game. Fisher does well to get off the ball before Chandler Jones, but the problem is that he didn’t give himself enough room to move with Jones. Fisher’s catch foot is not deep enough and Jones uses a push-pull rush to get around Fisher. Because he is not deep enough, Jones doesn’t have to re-route himself to the quarterback, he just allows his speed to take him right to Mahomes for the sack on third down.


Previously in the season, Fisher had some of these lapses but it didn’t hurt the team in terms of sacks or tackles for loss. As the season goes on minimizing mistakes and making sure they aren’t repeated will determine the success and future of these offensive lineman for the Chiefs. Any sack at any time could hurt the team as well as the quarterback. I can see Fisher playing with an edge going into the Monday Night game against the Rams, after allowing multiple sacks for the first time this season.


As I mentioned earlier, Reiter was exposed a little more this past week than in the previous two games he started. He found it difficult to move defenders in the run game and struggled in pass protection.


Reiter has Rodney Gunter lined up in the left side A gap, on his left shoulder and on the snap of the ball doesn’t make a huge attempt to get in front of Gunter. Erving is looking to help inside of Fisher with Jones, so Reiter is essentially one on one. His feet stop moving and he is reaching to Gunter with his arms, which allows Gunter to get into the A gap and turn Reiter’s hips. After Reiter’s hips are turned, that’s it Reiter cannot recover, Gunter gets around him in a few steps and right to Mahomes for the sack.


It’s only Reiter’s third start and he was always bound to have some tough snaps; he has shown the ability to be a competent starter in the NFL, but maybe not full time as of now. As long as Mitch Morse is out with concussion symptoms, though, Reiter will be the starter, and he is going to have his hands full dealing with Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh up front for the Rams.


It wasn’t all bad for the Chiefs offensive line; last year these kind of games popped up all too often and it was almost normal. One game like this out of ten is a good learning experience for the OL, shows them not to get complacent and gives them something to strive for. That being said, there were some gaping holes they opened up in the run game for Kareem Hunt.


When everything goes right, plays like this are almost like poetry in motion; the Chiefs are looking to run in the right A gap here. Reiter executes a down block on the tackle in the left A gap and doesn’t get moved. Andrew Wylie and Mitchell Schwartz work on a double team to the second level, Wylie pushes the tackle into a better position for Schwartz to handle and then puts a block on the hesitating linebacker. The hole opens almost immediately for Hunt and doesn’t get touched until he is tackled by the Free Safety. Near flawless execution up front by the Chiefs led to an 18 yard gain for Hunt.


The Chiefs have had great success with their offensive line this year, even with injuries to key interior guys. So having an off game is to be expected, but Fisher, at this point in his career needs to have a statement game on Monday showing that he can bounce back from bad games like the one against the Cardinals. This week is going to be a good test against the interior pass rush of the Rams, to see how the OL can recover and play in a game with playoff implications.


On the other side of the field, the defense was having fun and getting after the quarterback. There were a lot of guys on the Chiefs defense that had excellent games against the Cardinals. Justin Houston, who finally returned to game action last week, had the best rated performance (88.1), according to Pro Football Focus, out of all Chiefs defenders in week ten. Houston looked like he never missed a game, he was great when rushing the QB, had five pressures and was just short of collecting his first sack since week four. He also had his first interception of the season on an intended screen to David Johnson, Houston saw the play coming and followed Josh Rosen’s eyes. Made for an easy INT for Houston. Having him back is going to be a great boost for the pass rush against the Rams on Monday Night.


Having Houston back helps in more ways than just getting another pass rusher in the field, it opens up other rushers such as Chris Jones, yes he is a defensive lineman but Jones is as capable a pass rusher as the Chiefs have on this team.


Houston and Ford garner so much attention on the outside and can easily collapse a quarterback’s pocket within a few seconds. Adding Jones and Allen Bailey on the inside makes the offensive line’s job even harder because each of these defenders can rush the quarterback. So the line has to make a decision of who to double team, and on this play they choose Bailey. Leaving Jones, Ford, and Houston one on one with their blockers. Jones understands at this point that he can bull rush this lineman and pushes him straight into the lap of Rosen, gets his free hand on the ball and records the strip sack.


The Chiefs have, with Houston returning to health, one of the most talented fronts in the NFL when it comes to pass rushing. They are tied for first in the NFL with 31 sacks, which is already the amount they had all of 2017. At the anchor of this pass rush is Dee Ford. The emergence of Ford as a pass rusher in 2018 has been a revelation to this defense. He is tied for third in the NFL with nine sacks on the season. But not only has he been better as a rusher this year, his overall understanding of the game has improved.


At the snap Ford’s responsibility is to the run; he is unblocked so he sets the edge, alert enough to not get too far upfield in case of a run cutback. Ford recognizes that it’s a play-action pass. He can run inside of Larry Fitzgerald, who is coming across his face, in order to get to Rosen faster, but instead he cuts in front of Fitzgerald, slowing him down and stalling the play. This does three things, it prevents Rosen from completing a pass to Fitzgerald quickly, which was his first read, it allows for Kendall Fuller to get in position to cover Fitzgerald, and it still gives Ford enough time to get to Rosen and force an errant throw.


The growth Ford displays on this play is the biggest reason the Chiefs should keep him around going forward. Ford in rounding into a complete defender and not just a situational pass rusher. That makes him much more valuable and much harder to let walk into free agency.


The Chiefs still seem to struggle week after week covering running backs out of the backfield and was no different against the Cardinals.


Eric Murray is down in the box, lined up on Cardinals tight end Ricky Seals-Jones, who is the only receiver lined up to the defense’s left side. David Johnson is lined up to the right of Rosen, so there is a threat of an added receiver to Murray’s side. On the snap of the ball, Seals-Jones releases to the inside and Murray hesitates. This hesitation is going to allow Johnson to get into the flat uncovered and into the endzone for an easy touchdown. Murray needs to understand that he has help to the inside and none to the outside, and as soon as Seals-Jones gets inside of him to watch Johnson and follow him. Knowing where you are on the field and where you have help are paramount to becoming a competent member of the secondary.


Yes this is about the front seven, but on that play Murray was an honorary member of the defensive front. Chiefs had a loaded box look with almost nine defenders up within a few yards of the line of scrimmage. Covering running backs out of the backfield is typically a job for a linebacker and they can all learn from what Murray did wrong.


All in all it was a complete game in every phase, some hiccups here and there but nothing the Chiefs can’t get right before they face off against the Rams on Monday Night Football. Protecting Mahomes, as it is every week, will be key to the success of the offense and being disciplined in gap assignments up front will be paramount in stopping Todd Gurley from running all over the defense. Get ready for a wild and crazy game this week. I expect the defense to have as many sacks as they did against the Cardinals if not more, and the offensive line to keep Mahomes much cleaner than in week ten. Dee Ford will be the best player on the defense for the Chiefs against the Rams, book it.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.