Kansas City Chiefs Must Get More Physical on Defense to Make Postseason

If the Kansas City Chiefs want to make it to the postseason, they need to get physical against the run. Allowing a league-worst 4.9 yards per carry isn’t a recipe for success in the NFL unless your offense can throw the ball extremely well.

It was actually unusual for any team to have a run defense so poor until recently—the increase in incidence has coincided with the pass-friendly rule changes of the last decade. Still, only seven teams since the merger have made the playoffs having allowed opponents to rush for 4.9 yards per carry or more during the regular season—Peyton Manning and Drew Brees were the quarterbacks of four of those teams.

The other quarterbacks to guide their teams to the playoffs despite bad run defenses are Matthew Stafford, Matt Ryan and Trent Green. The 2003 Chiefs with Green were actually the first team to make the playoffs after allowing more than 4.9 yards per carry since the merger.

Team	Year	Passing Yards	Y/A Allowed	Rush TD
KC	2003	3981	5.17	18
NOR	2006	4503	4.94	10
IND	2006	4308	5.33	20
ATL	2008	3336	4.92	17
DET	2011	4814	5	10
NO	2011	5347	4.95	11
IND	2012	4128	5.14	14
KC	2014	2195	4.93	2

Four of the seven were also one-and-done in the playoffs. More 8-8 or worse teams (11) have made the postseason than teams that allow 4.9 or more yards per carry. If nothing changes over the final month of the season, the Chiefs could become the first team to throw for fewer than 3,000 yards, allow 4.9 yards per carry and finish with more than five wins.

What makes the Chiefs so odd is that they’ve allowed just two rushing touchdowns. The defense is clearly able to defend the run when they feel like it or when the secondary is able to provide additional support.

The big problem for the Chiefs has been big plays. A league-worst 57 running plays allowed of 10 yards or more will kill any per carry run average. It’s not as if the Chiefs are giving up four, five and six yards per carry on a consistent basis.

The Chiefs have a respectable 27 tackles for a loss in the run game. It’s a boom or bust run defense—either the opponent is stuffed or they make a big play.

Stat	Rushes 10+	TFL (Run Only)	Missed Tackles	YPC
Value	57	27	100	4.93
Rank	32	-	27	32

Correcting the problem isn’t necessarily easy because it’s actually multiple problems. Getting off blocks, penetrating at the line of scrimmage, tackling, being in the right gap AKA run fits and knowing where the help is coming from have all been factors. The team is preaching fundamentals because that’s the only thing that can help in every area.

“It’s a combination of all those things. If it was just one thing it’d probably be a lot easier to address and fix,” said defensive coordinator Bob Sutton via KCChiefs.com. “I think our guys know its technique, you have to bear-down and work on your technique and fundamentals every day.”

To work on fundamentals, the Chiefs practiced in pads on Wednesday. Even without live tackling, players are able to move at full speed in pads and give the defense a chance to practice run fits when no one is letting up. Defenders also have to use their hands to get off blocks when offensive players can fully engage them in pads.

It might help, but a bigger part of the problem is that the Chiefs are missing two of their best run defenders. Inside linebacker Derrick Johnson and defensive end Mike DeVito are both out for the year with torn Achilles'.

Johnson led the team with eight tackles for a loss in the run game last season. DeVito was the team’s top-graded run defender and fourth-best 3-4 defensive end against the run, per Pro Football Focus.

Player	TFLr	PFF Run Grade
Player	TFLr	PFF Run Grade
Derrick Joihnson	8	1.5
Team Rank	1	9
NFL Rank	8T	18
Mike DeVito	1	16.5
Team Rank	6T	1
Position Rank	-	4

Josh Mauga replaced Johnson and has 17 missed tackles. Defensive back Ron Parker leads the team with 20 missed tackles. The team missed 15 tackles last Sunday and has now missed a combined 100 tackles on the season.

"We do miss those players. People don't realize how good of a player Derrick Johnson is until he's not in the lineup," linebacker Tamba Hali said, via Dave Skretta of the Associated Press. "He made a lot of plays. But we have to rally around the guys we have right now."

The reality is that the Chiefs can’t rely on replacements to make as big an impact as their star defenders. If the Chiefs want to improve, they need to be more physical at the line of scrimmage. They need to have the right mindset to penetrate into the backfield to disrupt more runs than they have so the linebackers and safeties can play downhill instead of on their heels. Sutton said, via KCChiefs.com:

"

The more stout you are up front, the less the ball comes through fast. And when it doesn’t come through fast, usually you get in pretty good position to tackle. That’s why I say the stronger the wall is up front and the longer it takes to get to that level, I think the easier it is for the second level players – the linebackers, and DB’s – to know how to fit those tackles up properly.

"

As much as the team preaches tackling technique, proper run fits and getting off blocks, if they really want to improve they have to be more disruptive at the line of scrimmage. Guys like nose tackle Dontari Poe and defensive end Allen Bailey will have to lead the charge.

"It's really a mindset," Poe said when asked about stuffing the run via the AP. "We have to wrap up. That's something we have to practice on and do it in the game."

Poe doesn’t have a single tackle for a loss in the run game this season. As the heart of the defense, Poe has to be more disruptive. Poe has to win one-on-one blocks so offenses have to double-team him at the point of attack. If Poe’s not playing well, Mauga and the other linebackers are going to have to fight off second-level blocks more often and they might have a running back bearing down on them.

“You don’t want to be a lateral playing team you want to be a penetrating team and you want to come across through a man,” Sutton said Wednesday. “Like we say, ‘we’ve got to set the tempo on defense.’”

In a 24-20 win over the Seattle Seahawks three weeks ago, the Chiefs demonstrated what happens when their defensive line plays physical and what happens when they don’t. Marshawn Lynch rushed 24 times for 124 yards, but when the Chiefs needed a stop, they were able to make the stop.

With the game on the line with 3:38 left in the game, the Chiefs stuffed Lynch on 4th-and-1 to seal the victory. When the defensive line is physical, their run defense is significantly better. When they aren’t, a historically bad Oakland Raiders rushing offense is ripping off 91-yard runs.  

If the Chiefs want to make the playoffs, they’ll need to be a lot more physical on defense. The good news is that three of their final four opponents are in the bottom six in yards per carry this season, which should make it easier.

This week, the Chiefs get the Arizona Cardinals, who are averaging a league-worst 3.1 yards per carry and could be without their No. 1 running back Andre Ellington. Then the Chiefs get the Raiders and their league-worst 870 rushing yards in Kansas City before they have to slow down Le’Veon Bell in Pittsburgh.

Unless otherwise noted, statistics via Pro-Football-Reference.com, the NFL Game Statistics and Information System, SportingCharts.com and ProFootballFocus.com (subscription required)