Chiefs Defensive Breakdown: Week 14
Craig Stout takes a look at the good, the bad and something you may have missed from the defense's performance against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 14.
The Las Vegas Raiders came into this week with a shaky offensive line, missing some weapons, and lacking confidence on the offensive side of the ball. They met one of the league’s best defenses over the latter half of the season in the Kansas City Chiefs — and one that has been wreaking havoc with their pressure packages.
What proceeded was absolute domination by Steve Spagnuolo’s group. Turnovers, sacks, pressures, and terrific run defense helped shut down the Raiders offense all day long. By the time the Raiders offense reached the midfield logo they stood on during their pre-game huddle, there were just 40 seconds left in the first half — and they were down by 35 points.
This week, as I do every week, I’ll take a look at the good, the bad, and something you may have missed from last week’s game — as well as some relevant numbers from charting the defense in a Chiefs’ beatdown of the Raiders.
The Good
This Chiefs defensive line has been dominant in the back half of the season, and this might have been their most dominant performance yet. Four players — Frank Clark, Chris Jones, Alex Okafor, and Tershawn Wharton — posted a pressure rate of higher than 15% on the day. Four players also posted a defensive success rate of 71% or higher against the run as well (Derrick Nnadi, Mike Danna, Jones, and Okafor). The result was pure dominance up front and a Raiders offense that was unable to get things going past the Chiefs defensive line.
Clark was particularly impressive while going up against the Raiders’ best offensive lineman in left tackle Kolton Miller. Clark put Miller in a blender with effective power moves, spin counters, and showcased speed and bend to beat the tackle up the arc. Clark put down an incredible 32% pressure rate Sunday against the Raiders, affecting Derek Carr nearly one out of every three rushes. Las Vegas sent extra blockers his way often throughout the day, making it an even more impressive performance.
While Jones hasn’t been the team’s best run defender on the year — that distinction belongs to Nnadi (and Melvin Ingram with a smaller sample size) — he was a force against the Raiders on Sunday by allowing just three yards per carry and an 83% defensive success rate against the run. Jones regularly re-set the line of scrimmage and forced negative plays in the run game. He set the tempo on the first play of the game, blowing up the run and forcing Josh Jacobs to the outside, into the waiting arms of Jarran Reed for a fumble.
While Jones and Clark should get the accolades, the ancillary pieces of this defensive line have really stepped up in the past several weeks, creating problems for the opposition. Okafor, Reed, and Ingram have all been massive presences as offenses allocate extra assets toward eliminating Jones and Clark. Having a viable third, fourth, and fifth rusher has completely changed this defensive line. Spagnuolo can once again rely on his four-man rush — which posted another 40%+ pressure rate at 43.24% on Sunday — to do the heavy lifting.
The defensive line was so good that the linebacker and secondary play — while still good — was largely overshadowed. However, two players in the secondary made their presence felt in a big way against the Raiders: Mike Hughes and Dan Sorensen. Hughes was a turnover-creating machine, forcing two fumbles and picking up the opening scoop-and-score. Hughes was targeted on 19% of the Raiders’ passing attempts and allowed just 5.43 yards per target for a 57% defensive success rate. After a shaky start to the season, Hughes has put together back-to-back good performances.
Speaking of turnarounds, Sorensen has been a completely different player over the last few weeks, culminating in arguably his best performance of the year. Sorensen had two pass breakups — one resulting in a Tyrann Mathieu interception — and just 4.75 yards per target. Only Mathieu posted a higher defensive success rate than Sorensen’s 75% for players with significant targets. While we’ve come to expect that kind of play out of Mathieu — even when he’s shifting into the slot, as he did this week — getting quality play out of Sorensen has helped the dime defense become Spagnuolo’s best unit in the back half of the season.
The Bad
Once again, it’s difficult to single out a “bad” element about the defense this week. Charvarius Ward had a performance he’ll look to improve upon, but a matchup against Hunter Renfrow — especially when protecting a large lead and giving cushion underneath — wasn’t always going to be in his favor. He’ll likely rebound in a big matchup as he has all year long.
Outside of that, the Chiefs defense looked terrific on the day and beat up an offense that was on life support. Moving on!
Something You May Have Missed
As I mentioned above, the Raiders dedicated a lot of assets to stopping Frank Clark (and Chris Jones) as the game went along. They chipped him with running backs, left tight ends in to help, and shaded the guard to his side to protect against interior rushes. Spagnuolo recognized this shift early in the matchup and gave the offensive line something extra to deal with by lining both Clark and Ingram as wide nine rushers to the same side.
This alignment — along with Sorensen and Ben Niemann mugging the A and B gaps to the weak side — is one that Spagnuolo has used in the past to loop one of the rushers into the B gap late (typically the second rusher off the line). Both Sorensen and Niemann drop out and Wharton (aligned as a 0-technique) slants to the opposite A gap from Clark and Ingram. With the running back releasing to the weakside to chip Clark up the arc, this puts four blockers toward two Chiefs pass rushers.
Ingram doesn’t commit to the pass rush, zoning initially over the running back — in case of a screen — and spying Carr in case he tries to escape the pocket. However, the tendency and the initial threat of a looping rusher keeps the left guard from helping protect the inside of the left tackle — which is where Clark beats the tackle with a spin move.
While it is an excellent move by Clark to beat the tackle on the inside, the alignment and tendency were able to take advantage of the Raiders protection scheme while still only rushing three players. This is a prime example of the Chiefs’ defensive staff setting up a plan to attack a weakness in tandem with one of their star players executing at a high level. That sort of symbiosis is one of the main reasons the Chiefs have taken this defense to new heights.
The Verdict
The Chiefs have a good defensive coaching staff that is putting its players in their best positions to succeed, and it’s bearing fruit at all levels of the defense. Sure, the superstars on this side of the ball are holding up their end of the bargain, but the production from each and every member of this squad shows just how “in tune” every player is to what the defense is doing.
That’s part of the reason why I believe this defense is one of the top squads in the league. It hasn’t mattered what offense they’ve gone up against or what strengths those squads possessed. This defense has lined up and produced at a ridiculously high level for five straight games, keeping their opponent under 10 points in four of them.
Even going back eight games — just after the Buffalo Bills debacle — the Chiefs defense has held the opposition to an average of 13.1 points per game and forced 19 turnovers. Their lone “off performance” in that stretch was in Week 7 against the Tennessee Titans, which feels more like an anomaly than the defense’s true self at this point.
Fans have gone from hoping this defense can make small improvements and string together good performances to expecting the defense to execute at an elite level week in and week out. They’ve given us minimal reason not to expect it, as well. With another tough matchup on the horizon — and perhaps the best offense that the Chiefs have seen in this stretch — the expectation is once again for this defense to step up and shut down a divisional opponent.
The national hype for Spagnuolo, Mathieu, Clark, Jones, and the rest of this defense is slowly building. People have taken notice that this team is not just Patrick Mahomes and the offense anymore. While the national narrative should already be on board with this defensive dominance, another performance against a good opponent this week could send the hype around Spagnuolo’s group to an all-time high.