Chiefs vs. Giants Game Preview: Scheme Spotlight, Play-calling Debates, Matchups to Watch, and More

This newsletter has been 'unlocked' by your friends at Tickets For Less. For content like this every day - upgrade to our paid subscription for only $50/year.

The Chiefs (3-4) and Giants (2-5) meet Monday night at Arrowhead Stadium.

It’s a game the Chiefs have to win. There’s no other way to put it.

Here’s what to keep an eye on during the game:

Scheme Spotlight

Where is the Horizontal Stretch?

The Chiefs offense simply doesn’t look right. Defenses are clearly challenging the Chiefs in different ways in 2021 and they simply haven’t found a way to attack them in a consistent manner. Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes have both talked about “finding the team’s identity” again this week and in the past a big part of that has been explosive plays.

Those simply aren’t coming frequently or efficiently this year for the Chiefs. While they continue to try and turn over why that may be the case and find an identity, they have to be significantly better throwing the ball under 20 yards and one big place to start is stretching the field horizontally.

The Andy Reid and Alex Smith Chiefs were known for stretching defenses from sideline to sideline. The misdirection paired with speed to the edge and barrage of crossing routes created a ton of horizontal spacing that made it difficult for defenses to stop.

Once Patrick Mahomes took over the Chiefs’ offense, those same horizontal spacing concepts existed but now the Chiefs added vertical spacing to the mix and thus the 2018 Chiefs offense was born. With the vertical aspect of the passing attack struggling, the Chiefs really need to be able to rely on the horizontal game in the short and intermediate areas but the problem is, it’s gone as well.

The Chiefs’ shorter passing game consists far too much of isolation and option routes right now. It’s slowing down the route progressions for the quarterback and making it a lot easier on defenses to slow them down. 

By keeping all their receiving options on the same linear plane they start the play on, this allows defenses to play split-field coverages. This means one half of the field can be playing one defense - Cover 4 for example - while the other half can be playing an entirely different coverage - Cover-3. This makes reading the entire field quickly and accurately for a quarterback and allows the defense to almost always be in advantageous positions.

The Chiefs need to get back to crossing the midline of the field with multiple receiving options and forcing defenses to defend the entire field. This will help counter a lot of the tight man coverage they are seeing at the line of scrimmage but also allow the Chiefs to utilize all of the space left open by keeping two high safeties for much of the game.

This is a little more generic game plan and not tailored to the New York Giants defense, but at this point the Chiefs really need to work on the basics of their offense. That, and nearly every defense should be playing the Chiefs offense the exact same way until they showcase they can beat it.

Should the Chiefs run the ball more?

A big question posed throughout the days following the abysmal offensive performance by the Chiefs against the Titans is if the offense should run the football more.

I’ve seen the debate on Twitter, was asked this week on the radio, and on our subscriber only podcast, 21 Questions, this week. It’s a worthy question — an offensive throwing the football at a high clip, struggling to sustain down-to-down consistency.

I’m not overly concerned with the current ratio — I’m more focused on the overall execution of this offense both run and pass. Matt has done an outstanding job looking at some of the offensive struggles schematically — and it’s all valid.

The call sheet needs to be better, the execution on the field needs to be better, and the ball protection needs to better. That more than anything is to blame for the struggles and lack of consistency.

The best argument for it I’ve heard came from Matt on our subscriber on today’s 21 Questions that releases later today. The Chiefs have invested heavily in an offensive line built to be able to run the football effectively. Orlando Brown Jr. and Trey Smith are road-grading presences up front who have been at their best run blocking. Perhaps replacing some of the short passing game with more runs will find more consistency.

I think an underrated part of the argument could be taking some pressure off Brown Jr., coming off his worst performance as a Chiefs. It’s been very up and down for him to the point in a Chiefs jersey. Perhaps getting him to do more of what he’s best at can protect him a little more.

We’ll see what the run-pass ratio looks like on Monday night. Any offensive success and consistency — run or pass — is welcome.

Daniel Jones vs. Chiefs 2nd Level Defense

The New York Giants may not seem as much of a threat as some of the other offenses the Chiefs defense has faced this year. They lack some creativity in their playcalling, and they’re not the most dynamic vertical threat offense. However, their quarterback poses a threat with his arm and his legs – and should put a lot of stress on the Chiefs linebackers and safeties at the second level.

Jones is a terrific zone read quarterback, potentially only second in the league at the task next to Lamar Jackson. He’s showcased his speed throughout his career by outrunning fleet-of-foot linebackers, and he’s a quick processor – reading the edge and making a quick decision on whether to pull the ball or keep it. Fans may not expect it to be a key element of this matchup, but Jones’ legs could help make or break the Chiefs success on the day.

The Chiefs defense struggled to keep Jackson contained earlier this season in some of these read option looks. While some of that lay squarely at the feet of the Chiefs defensive ends, their linebacking corps didn’t read their keys well enough and ended up in a lot of the same gaps as their teammates. That has to get cleaned up – with a replacement MIKE linebacker – or similar results can be expected on Monday night.

Jones’ success doesn’t just come with his feet. He’s a quick-strike quarterback from the pocket that loves to target the middle of the field. Jones’ best games arguably come from his rhythm passing on slants, drags, and dig routes. Those elements all attack the space in the middle of the field at or just behind the second level of the defense.

When Jones hits the top of his drop, his first read is often one of these middle of the field throws, which he will take – sometimes to a fault. If the linebackers or safeties at the second level aren’t feeling the route in their underneath zone drops, Jones will take the easy 7-9 yards right at the linebacker time and time again. We’ve seen too many targets of this exact nature due to some poor coverage ability out of the Chiefs defenders, so a concentrated effort to drop into these throwing lanes is paramount this week.

What’s more, Jones is a very aggressive quarterback and will attack tight coverage on these types of throws. This has led to a lot of PBU’s for rotating safeties – as well as some interceptions with a late rotating player into the low hole. Steve Spagnuolo has shown the ability to weaponize Tyrann Mathieu in this exact kind of situation in the past, leading to some massive turnovers for this defense. Jones has continued to miss these late rotations even into this season, so this could be a prime opportunity to make some impactful plays on this side of the ball.