Kansas City Chiefs: New league rules are affecting pass rush

The Kansas City Chiefs have a sub-par defense and that’s putting it lightly. New league rules may be affecting the pass rush, which doesn’t help at all.

The Kansas City Chiefs have had no problem scoring points through the first three games of the season. That’s a good thing because the leagues worst defense has had no problem letting teams score.

In football, it is often necessary to have a good pass rush in order to have a good secondary, and vice versa.

The Chiefs have neither at the moment. Somewhat surprisingly, the Chiefs have been unable to get to the quarterback as often as they need to. Part of that may be scheme or personnel, and some of that may be due to the new league rules set in place.

The quarterback may as well be wearing a different jersey, letting the defensive players know who to touch and who not to.

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Just ask Green Bay Packers linebacker, Clay Mathews. He’s been penalized each week so far on what has been considered a clean sack since sacks were considered a thing.

It isn’t that the Chiefs aren’t penetrating the offensive line but it has more to do with what happens afterward.

Back in preseason, Tanoh Kpassagnon had a picture perfect sack that was penalized. After the game, Justin Houston told reporters that he was confused as to how he was supposed to tackle.

This confusion and uncertainty from the defensive players have obviously affected their play on the field but also affected the way the game is played and perceived.

My personal opinion, it is had a more negative effect on the NFL than the anthem fiasco.

Players, league-wide, act like they don’t know how to sack the quarterback. This is because they don’t actually know. You have players that don’t finish plays on defense for fear of getting penalized. Then you have guys like Mathews who keeps playing the way he’s known all his life.

As a second-grade football coach, I can tell you this much, we sack the quarterback. The proper tackling technique is to go 100% through the tackle. That’s being planted in our youth across the country. After 20 years of playing the game, it’s understandable that many have no idea what is right, or wrong.

The Chiefs have had 69 pressures so far this season. They’ve had 6 sacks, according to profootballfocus.com.

Although the Chiefs defense is on pace for 5 more sacks than last year, the number of sacks the Chiefs should have is close to double what they currently have.

At times it seems as if Justin Houston is playing lazy out there, but a closer look shows more hesitation than anything.

The league definitely needs to look into these types of issues. From not knowing what a catch is, to now not knowing what a sack is. Welcome to 11 vs 10 football, folks.