Kansas City Chiefs: Orlando Scandrick Wasn’t The Problem Week 2
The Kansas City Chiefs secondary got lit up by Ben Roethlisberger in Week 2. Orlando Scandrick was not one of the players getting torched in the secondary.
The Kansas City Chiefs went toe to toe with Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers offense in a shootout on Sunday afternoon. In a remarkable offensive performance, the Chiefs were able to put up 42 points on the team that has given them the most trouble of the last five years. With the offense putting up so many points, Pittsburgh was forced to answer with some of their own.
The first quarter of the game was dominated by the Chiefs. Kansas City scored on every drive, and the defense was all over Big Ben forcing punt after punt. The second quarter was flipped as Pittsburgh tied it up just before halftime. The shootout began and it took till midway through the fourth quarter for Kansas City’s defense to get another stop.
Roethlisberger ended the day throwing the ball 60 times, completing 39, for 452 yards and three touchdowns. Yet another week that the Chiefs defense gave up over 400 yards. We could also remember that Kansas City was in prevent defense the entire fourth quarter of Week 1 against Los Angeles. Regardless, Kansas City’s defense ranks last in the league in yards given up through two weeks of football.
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While the Chiefs secondary was getting torched on Sunday by the likes of Big Ben, Antonio Brown, and JuJu Smith-Schuster it wasn’t because of Orlando Scandrick. In fact, the only time you heard Scandrick’s name during the game likely was on the holding call that took away the defensive touchdown by Chris Jones. That’s bad, but he was solid outside of that play.
I talked on our podcast how I thought Steven Nelson was getting too much praise for his performance on Sunday. When I watched the All-22 film, I thought it was Orlando Scandrick that was having a solid game as I only counted him allowing one catch, which by the way went for zero yards.
I wasn’t the only one who felt that he had a good game as Scandrick was in Pro Football Focus’ article on “20 PFF Stats To Know From Week 2“. Here is what they had to say about his performance against the Steelers.
"“Scandrick spent 58 snaps in coverage against Pittsburgh, was targeted eight times yet only allowed one reception for zero yards. His 58.0 coverage snaps per reception allowed not only led the league in Week 2, but it was also a clear 8.0 snaps higher on average than the next cornerback.”"
That’s pretty remarkable. We know that Scandrick struggled in Week 1 getting beat by Keenan Allen for a touchdown over the top on a double step move off of the line of scrimmage. There are not many cornerbacks that haven’t been juked by Keenan Allen. Remember Marcus Peters?
Against Pittsburgh, Scandrick was targeted eight times while only giving up the one reception that went nowhere from my charting. Steven Nelson and Kendall Fuller both gave up six receptions and a touchdown each. They were also targeted more than Scandrick.
If we can continue to get some more games out of Scandrick as we saw against Pittsburgh, this defense could start to look better down the road. I still believe that while the defense won’t be top ten, it could significantly improve over time as players have worked together longer. There’s also the expectation of them shutting down everyone when the offense is scoring in five plays sending the defense right back out there.
It will be interesting to see if Scandrick keeps up his performance from Sunday. Facing the San Francisco 49ers this weekend in the home opener, I expect a very good game from Kansas City. The crowd will help as it will be louder than ever as Patrick Mahomes returns home for his first starting game at Arrowhead Stadium.
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The 49ers also don’t have the talents at wide receiver that the Chargers and Steelers do. Here’s to hoping for a great performance from the secondary without having to worry about elite talents on offense.