Kansas City Chiefs: Defense peaking at perfect time
In the Kansas City Chiefs’ 31-13 victory over the Colts in the AFC Divisional Round, offense was obviously the focus for most people. The Chiefs defense, however, turned heads with their performance.
After finishing the 2018 regular season ranked at or near the bottom in nearly every statistical category, there wasn’t much hope for Kansas City Chiefs defense to do much of anything during the postseason.
Well, after one game in the 2019 playoffs, the Chiefs defense shut all of us up. They were on point nearly all evening long and allowed just six points to the Colts offense that put up big time numbers on the road in Houston last week.
From the beginning, the Chiefs defense looked much better than weeks past. They forced four straight three and outs to start the game and held the Colts to ZERO (yes, ZERO) first downs in the first quarter. No one would have predicted that stat line, not even the most optimistic Chiefs fans.
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The pass rush had a tough task this week, going up against a very good Colts offensive line that kept Andrew Luck upright all afternoon last week in Houston. Luck had only been sacked 18 times in the regular season, which was a HUGE improvement from the 41 sacks he had in 2016 (the last season in which he was a starter).
Well, KC’s pass rush made Luck uncomfortable all evening long and that was the difference in this game. They sacked him three times (Justin Houston had two while Dee Ford notched the other sack) and hit him five times all together. Luck looked like a much different quarterback than the one we saw during the Colts win streak and that was because the Chiefs pass rush was able to get after him.
Chris Jones also had a freakishly good game, batting down three passes. The Chiefs defense as a whole defended 11 passes with four of those being batted balls. Jones was going up against All-Pro rookie guard Quenton Nelson and while he didn’t get a sack, those batted balls were important.
The secondary had struggled a lot this year, but they did their job on Saturday, allowing only one touchdown on the evening. Charvarius Ward, Steven Nelson, and Jordan Lucas all looked good out there and that’s a positive sign for the rest of the postseason.
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Last, but not least, let’s give it up for the Chiefs run defense! They had been a joke virtually all season long, but the Colts only managed 87 yards off 14 carries. Now it’s worth noting that the Chiefs took a double digit lead in the first quarter, which forced Indy into having to abandon the run more than they’d have liked to.
Here are some numbers from the Colts offensive playmakers in this game:
- Andrew Luck – 19/36, 203 yards, TD
- Marlon Mack – 9 carries, 46 yards
- T.Y. Hilton – 4 receptions, 60 yards, TD
- Dontrelle Inman – 4 receptions, 55 yards
- Eric Ebron – 5 receptions, 51 yards
While watching SportsCenter hours after both playoff games had wrapped up on Saturday night, a stat was mentioned that really shows how great the Kansas City defense was. The stat was that the Colts went 0 for 9 on third downs, an area which they had previously been quite good at. KC stopped them from doing much of anything throughout the entire game.
The pass rush showed up big, which made the secondary’s life easier. When the secondary had to make a play, they mostly did their job (the Hilton touchdown was a near perfect throw by Luck). The run defense isn’t fixed, but the Chiefs offense getting a big lead was the best case scenario there because it forced Indy to air it out more.
I haven’t even mentioned yet that the defense managed to force a key turnover. Shortly after Sammy Watkins fumbled the ball in the third quarter, Dee Ford knocked the ball out of Luck’s hand and Justin Houston pounced on top of it. The offense got the ball right back and that was crucial.
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KC’s offense slowed down in the second half, but the defense bailed them out. Had the defense played the way they did in the regular season, the end result of this game might have been different. Fortunately, they were as good as they’ve been all season long and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Chiefs Kingdom should feel great with this defense moving forward in the playoffs. If that defense, the one we saw on Saturday in the Divisional Round, shows up again next Sunday at Arrowhead for the AFC Championship Game, this Kansas City Chiefs team can absolutely win the Super Bowl.