Kansas City Chiefs defense finally came to life against Raiders

There has been a complete lack of a spark for the Kansas City Chiefs defense during their down stretch. That changed on Sunday as the defense looked inspired.

It has been a very down year for the Kansas City Chiefs defense in 2017. That was expected to continue this past weekend against a high-powered Raiders offense. Especially since the Chiefs were benching star cornerback Marcus Peters. Most people thought KC would get routed. Instead, the defense responded with some fire.

We had seen some flashes during the course of the season that the Kansas City defense could play well. However, there really wasn’t any consistently good aspect of the unit to pin our hopes on. The pass rush seemed ineffective, the run defense wasn’t really stopping anyone, and the pass defense was getting torched.

For most of Sunday, that was completely changed. The Chiefs forced three turnovers on the day, sacked Derek Carr three times, held the Raiders under 100 yards on the ground, and dominated the air for most of the day. Outside of the fourth quarter, it was an absolutely crushing effort.

Coaching Staff Made A Statement

If you’re hoping I’m about to tell you that the Kansas City Chiefs should send Marcus Peters packing, just go read something else. However, the message that the KC coaching staff was clearly trying to send this week absolutely paid off. Not only was Marcus Peters benched for the entire game, but Chris Jones lost his spot as a starter. Message delivered.

The Kansas City secondary responded with a strong performance. The Chiefs broke up nine passes on the day, eight of those by defensive backs. The defensive backs also picked off two passes and forced a fumble. Meanwhile, Chris Jones was absolutely living in the Raiders backfield and had a dominant day. Message received.

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Andy Reid has already made it clear that Marcus Peters will be back next week. That’s good news as he essentially shut down Chargers receiver Keenan Allen in their earlier match-up this year. The Chiefs absolutely need Peters back on the field for this game, and I expect that he will be looking to have a statement game.

Ruthless Aggression Wins Games

For much of the season, we have seen the Kansas City Chiefs play a soft defense. They’ve played off of receivers, dropped pass rushers as extra coverage men, and have focused on containment. It hasn’t worked well for them. Against the Raiders, we saw a defense playing aggressively and looking to make plays in the backfield. The results speak for themselves.

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Justin Houston ended up having a solid bounce back game. Chris Jones made an impact. The Chiefs secondary wasn’t being asked to cover for extended periods of time. The Raiders offense wasn’t able to play with any level of comfort or confidence until late in the game. That’s what you’re supposed to be going for.

Kansas City wasn’t just taking advantage of mistakes on Sunday, they were forcing them. When your players get into the opponents backfield regularly, you make bad things happen for them. That is what defense is supposed to be about in the NFL. Hopefully that is something we will see for the rest of the year.

This is excellent timing for the Kansas City Chiefs to have broken out of their funk. The Chiefs will be playing the Chargers next week in a game that essentially amounts to an AFC West championship game. It’s hard to see either team losing their final two games, so this match-up is really for all the marbles in the division. There is now some reason for confidence in KC for this game.