Kansas City Chiefs: It’s Time For Bob Sutton To Go
The Kansas City Chiefs blew a 14 point lead at home to the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday night in what some would consider an all time classic.
The Los Angeles Chargers had never come back from down 14 in the fourth quarter and the Kansas City Chiefs had never lost after being up by 14 in the fourth quarter.
Matter of fact, according to ESPN stats and info, Philip Rivers was 0-20 for his career in situations just like that and teams were 0-88 all time. Those stats alone should tell you everything you need to know about the Chiefs current defensive situation.
The firing of defensive coordinator Bob Sutton has been a trendy topic since the end of last season. After the Chiefs choked away an 18 point lead at home to the Tennessee Titans in last year’s Wild Card round, fans wanted nothing more than some new young talent defensively and a new mind calling the shots.
When Sutton first arrived in 2013, his philosophy was to effect the quarterback and generate turnovers. He seemed to be more aggressive, dialing up blitzes at opportune times and coming up with exotic packages to get his defensive backs after the passer as well. All of that is fine and dandy, but where Sutton has ultimately failed is his inability to adapt to what he has.
From 2013-2016, the Chiefs defense was much younger and more talented, especially at defensive back. Sutton has always believed in a man-to-man scheme, which puts a ton of pressure on his corners and safeties and these last two seasons, he just hasn’t had the players to run the scheme properly.
Each week you see the Chiefs get burned the same ways, whether it be a middle linebacker isolated on a running back out of the backfield, or the smaller corners get abused by bigger receivers on the outside. Or just flat out get gashed up the middle by opposing teams running attacks.
The worst of it though reared it’s ugly head on Thursday against the Chargers.
Up 14 with under five minutes to play in regulation, the Chiefs stopped blitzing Rivers, who had been under pressure and sacked heavily in the first half and chose to sit back and play prevent defense. Prevent defense has always been Sutton’s means of protecting a lead and it hardly ever works, especially against great quarterbacks like Philip Rivers.
Another puzzling thought is why wouldn’t the Chiefs have all world safety and defensive leader, Eric Berry on the field when the game was on the line?
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The obvious answer here is that Berry was on a snap count due to his injury, but with eight seconds left on the clock and the Chargers needing a touchdown to tie or win the game, you’re telling me your best defensive back couldn’t get one or two more snaps?
The other head scratcher here is safety Jordan Lucas, who showed flashes back in October, but now cant seem to find his way back on the field. You certainly can’t get any worse at safety with Ron Parker and Eric Murray, so it’s uncertain why Sutton refuses to play the young man.
Andy Reid has stayed incredibly loyal to Bob Sutton and he’s defended him publicly, as he should because that’s his guy and calling people out publicly gets nothing done. You have to think even Reid knows this isn’t working anymore. No coordinator should keep their job if they rank near the bottom in the same categories consistently each season.
What’s also fascinating is the fact that head coach Andy Reid can continuously crank out young, talented offensive minds who go on to make for excellent head coaches, but hasn’t been able to do the same on the defensive side of the ball.
Next. All-Time Chiefs Leaders in Sacks. dark
I don’t have the answer for who the next guy could be, but Andy Reid needs to exhaust some of his energy this off-season in finding a guy who can actually call a good game defensively and general manager, Brett Veach needs find speed and talent in the secondary.