FanHouse Defense

After a few pretty lousy performances on defense, Denver turned in a pretty good game yesterday afternoon, at least on paper. They allowed just 20 points, held the entire Arizona team to exactly 100 yards rushing, picked Leinart off twice, and sacked him three times.

Generally, when you hold an opponent to 20 points, you say it's a good game defensively - but this isn't your average opponent, and for a large part of the season, this wasn't your average defense. And besides, you can make the argument that a lot of the reason the Cardinals only scored 20 points was that our offense held the ball long enough to score 37. The question is really whether the game represents a defensive rebound, or just the same mediocre play in front of a worse opponent.

If you look at it one way, Arizona has so far averaged just 19.1 points per game throughout the season, meaning holding them to 20 points is just, well, average. But Jim Nantz and Phil Simms are right in saying that the team has played much better of late. Coming into Sunday, Arizona averaged 29 points in its last three games - which means that at the very least, Denver's defense was able to stop a sort of a streak. And in a very positive sign, the pass rush put consistent pressure on an offensive line that had been playing very well in the previous three games.

So I guess it's not like the defense was entirely dominant - but they played well, and it's a good start after a series of pretty weak games. It comes at the right time, too. The entire unit is going to need to play better, especially in the secondary, if the Broncos want to win next week against Cincinatti.

Catch the pun in the title? This one's about the defense's play late in games. When the Seahawks got the ball with two minutes left and needing a field goal to win, did anyone not see what was coming? Even though the defense had been dominating for most of the game, they couldn't put the clamps on when it counted - and this is a recurring trend.

Now I know you shouldn't blame the defense for a loss when they allow 23 points and hold an opposing offense to under 300 total yards. But something has to be done about the prevent defense that they're playing late in games. Matt Hasselbeck never got in his rhythm early in the game because the coverage was so good - but when it mattered most, he was able to completely pick apart the Broncos' zone defense.

So something has to be done to give the offense a chance to win these late games. I don't know what it is because I'm not a football genius, and I don't know how to run a successful late-game defense - maybe you do? But it seems to me that it's been a recurring trend this season: this defense cannot shut down an opponent late in the game. And because of it, the offense isn't being given a chance to perform for themselves late in the game and see if they can pull out a close one instead of the other team. I'm not giving the offense any excuses for their lousy play, I'm justing pointing out that they're not the only ones who aren't getting the job done.

The Chiefs should be licking their chops right now. The Browns' offense is in complete disarray right now. Reuben Droughns has been downgraded to special teams for... well, who really knows. The Browns lost starting left tackle Ryan Tucker to an undisclosed mental disorder (not really a laughing matter--I wish him a healthy recovery). Braylon Edwards has been involved in so much drama in the past week, TV executives are thinking of starting a new show called "As Braylon Edwards Turns." Who knows if Edwards will start. The Chiefs have no good reason to struggle on defense but, being a Chiefs' fan for as long as I have been, I never really know what to expect.

When Cleveland runs the ball:
Who really knows what to expect from Jason Wright. It seems to me that the Browns are scapegoating Reuben Droughns for a pretty horrific offensive line. The Chiefs have been pretty solid against the run. They completely shut the Broncos' run defense last week. The Chiefs will be missing a pretty important piece to their run defense with James Reed out for Sunday's game. However, Reed is not exactly a difference maker. There is really no excuse for the Chiefs to struggle against the run on Sunday.

When Cleveland passes the ball:
Kellen Winslow has quietly turned into a pretty terrific receiving tight end. Tight ends have provided substantial matchup problems in the past weeks.

It's hard to believe that we are only a few years removed from the nightmare of a Chiefs' defense that used to patrol the field at Arrowhead.

Do you remember the defense I'm talking about? You remember Greg Robinson? He was the head cheese for the swiss cheese defense. His resume was impressive: he was the defensive coordinator for the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos. The only problem is, the times had changed but his defense did not.

Slowly but surely, the swiss cheese house that Robinson built has started to melt away. All we are left with are remnants of that defense. The supposed marquee free agents that Robinson brought in, such as Shawn Barber and Dexter McCleon, are long gone. In fact, only two starters remain from that defense: Kawika Mitchell and Greg Wesley. It's hard to believe that in 3 short years, the Chiefs have almost completely wiped out the entire defense.

Last week after the Pittsburgh game, I said that the Broncos needed to continue their streak of strong offensive performances - but more importantly, resist the tendancy this team has had in the first half of the season to play down (or up) to the level of their opponent. If you look at it (and you throw out that first awful game), you see a team that has played just well enough to win every game they've won. Well, the streak didn't continue. Once again, the Broncos squeaked by against Oakland, barely edging out their seventh victory against one of the league's worst teams.

Why do they do this? It's often hard to say. You'd like to see the Broncos beat the good teams like they've been doing, and change things around a bit by steamrolling the bad - but instead, the Broncos have consistantly not risen above their worst opponents. Look at it this way: So far, the Broncos have played 5 games against teams with records below .500, and they're 4-1 in those games. But, the Broncos have won those games by an average of just 8.75 points. Their average margin of victory against over-.500 teams is 7.66, just about one point lower.

All of this says that this team, for whatever reason, isn't bringing the same quality of play every weekend. Most of this is probably the offense, which for various reasons this year hasn't been able to play as well against bad teams as they have against good teams. But it also speaks to the glaringly easy schedule the Broncos have had so far. Of the nine teams they've faced, five have been against teams with records below .500. They have yet to play San Diego, Cincinatti, Seattle, and their second game against Kansas City - so the fact that they are 7-2 given their often uneasy play is a testament to the ability of the defense and coaching to overcome the offense's shortcomings against bad teams.

But that's exactly it - next weekend, the Broncos will play the highest-scoring offense in the NFL in San Diego, which means that if we want to win, our offense will have to match theirs like we were able to do against the Colts. But the good thing about the offense this year is that so far we haven't had a let-down against good teams - and I believe that Jake and the rest of the unit will come out on Sunday with the intensity they need to put up a lot of points. But one of these days, you know this trend of playing to the level of opponents is going to come back to haunt us. When you basically get a bye week against an easy team, you don't want to make it close, because unless you take care of business, you're eventually going to lose one of them. And in a tight division like this, who knows how costly that could be?

Nobody flinches when good players fall for the Chiefs. It's amazing how quiet the news was that Derrick Johnson and Greg Wesley would miss this Sunday's Game. Especially for Johnson, who is on pace to rack up a very impressive 100 tackles and 9 sacks. Luckily, the Chiefs feel pretty confident in the depth behind these two players. Jarrad Page has played a lot of snaps this season and should be polished enough to adequately replace Wesley, who is having a surprisingly good season. Johnson will be replaced by Keyaran Fox--not nearly as fast, but he's not a bad player to bring off the bench.

When the Dolphins run the ball
The Chiefs have been somewhat spotty in stopping the run this season; however, the Dolphins should not provide too much of a test for the Chiefs. The Dolphins are deathly afraid of running the ball. Their offensive line simply does not open up holes. The Chiefs will take a big hit on run support by not having Derrick Johnson to flag down the outside runs and Greg Wesley, who has always been a very good run defender.

Keyaran Fox did not seem to get to the outside nearly as fast as Derrick Johnson usually does. Tamba Hali and Jared Allen have been doing a terrific job this season containing the outside run, and they will need to do so again on Sunday. James Reed and Ron Edwards have mostly done a pretty good job all season plugging holes in the interior run defense. The run defense needs to be won in the trenches. The Dolphins' offensive line has been absolutely awful in run support and the Chiefs need to take away the Dolphins' running game early to shy the Dolphins away from the run.

When the Dolphins pass the ball?
Joey Harrington has this Dolphins team playing a little more consistently.

It was easy to criticize Jake Plummer for his play through the first six games of the season, excluding his 250+ yard performance at New England. He threw seven interceptions and looked downright lousy as the Broncos beat bad teams in spite of, it seemed, his play at quarterback.

But after last night's thrilling loss to the Colts, I don't think anyone should be complaining about Plummer's play. The offense scored 31 points, by far their highest total of the season, and it was Jake - who finished with a 174 yards including one touchdown in the air and one rushing), who was largely responsible for their success. He lead four 80+ yard drives that resulted in touchdowns, and even if you want to credit Mike Bell for a lot of the offense's second-half production (credit which he duly deserves), you can't deny that Jake did an outstanding job managing the offense and executing plays. He made the big plays when they were there, got tough first downs with his arm and his legs, and the bottom line is, his offense put up 31 points, which should be enough for the Broncos - especially this Broncos team with this defense - to win every time.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Plummer was the only reason the Broncos were even in the game. This incredible defense, which was supposed to give Peyton Manning fits, could do nothing to stop Manning as the Colts drove for scores on every possession in the second half. And yet Plummer and the offense matched Peyton coolly, countering Manning touchdown for touchdown and field goal for field goal until they couldn't anymore because time had run out.

To say that the Chiefs looked horrific on Sunday against the Steelers would be an understatement. Their defense either was exposed or they just had a despicable outing. GIven the Chiefs' defensive successes so far this season, I'll point to the latter. They will certainly need to make a strong statement on Sunday, where they face a Chargers' offense that's very beatable, but potentially very dangerous.

When the Chargers run the ball:
As dangerous as LaDanian Tomlinson is, the Chiefs have had surprising success against him, even in years where their run defense was leaky. Last season, the Chiefs held LT to 69 and 47 yards respectively. The year before that, they held LT to only 46 yards on the ground. LT has yet to post a 100+ yard game on a Gunther Cunningham defense.

That being said, the Chiefs don't look impressive on run defense this season. They've shown holes where there were none last year. Perhaps that's the result of the cover 2 focus the defense has this season, which has been known to show leaks on run defense. LT has been very good in the running game this season for the Chargers, though not particularly outstanding. But this is LT--he can break out on any given Sunday. It is crucial that the Chiefs hold LT in check.

I deliberately waited overnight to write about my thoughts on the game. I had to, otherwise I would be fired for writing a myriad of expletives in this column. Or, at the very least, the FCC would make a big fuss and I would be subject to a Peter Griffin satire of this blog (which, come to think of it, would actually be pretty cool).

So what has my "sleeping on it" achieved? For one thing, I am no longer convinced that the Chiefs will finish the season 2-14. For another, I was able to calm down enough to avoid breaking every key on my keyboard as I type.

Yes, the anger is still there. How could it not be? This game, in a sense, was worse than the game against the Giants last year. Not only did the Chiefs miss tackles, but they also blew coverages on almost every crucial down. The Steelers certainly deserve credit for exploiting those holes, but the Chiefs deserve the majority of the blame. There is simply no excuse for leaving players that wide open on every play. That is not even an exaggeration-- the Chiefs really did execute poorly on almost every play.

Nor can the offense expect to be immune from criticism. One thing I learned upon reflection is that Willie Roaf is perhaps not missed as badly as we expected on pass blocking, but he is missed very, very badly in run blocking. It is pretty clear now that teams are stacking defenders in the middle, which is the strength of the offensive line, and Larry Johnson has simply had no room to run anywhere. You can tell the Chiefs have absolutely no faith in running LJ to the outside, and that is allowing the defense to clog up the middle lanes. LJ can't run if he can't breathe.

It probably would not have been wrong last week to think that there was a very good chance of Matt Leinart starting against the Chiefs. After all, they were this close to doing it last week, and Kurt Warner would have needed to play a fantastic game against Atlanta to keep his starting job.

With that in mind, did Gunther Cunningham perhaps give away too much in last Sunday's shutout win over the 49ers?

Think about it. The Chiefs achieved their shutout primarily by confusing the heck out of Alex Smith. For example, throughout the game, J.C. Pearson remarked on the Chiefs putting everyone except the cornerbacks at the line of scrimmage. Without knowing whether the Chiefs would call an all-out blitz or drop back, Smith was hesitant and sometimes panicked.

By watching tape, however, Leinart may be able to prepare for that kind of trickery. Leinart is a rookie and has a lot to learn, so you can bet he and Dennis Green will be watching the Chiefs' 2006 game tapes very closely to pick up on any tendencies. You wonder whether the Chiefs should have left some tricks in the bag in the second half and save them for the road game in Arizona.

Of course, all this is moot if the Chiefs generate a consistent pass rush against the porous Arizona line. Still, if Cunningham has more trickery up his sleeve, he'd be wise to bring them out against Leinart, who may be better able to utilize Arizona's dangerous wide receiver weapons. The more Leinart gets confused, the better.