KC Chiefs: Run defense woes continue in second straight loss

By Leigh Oleszczak | Oct 13, 2019

KANSAS CITY, MO - OCTOBER 13: Morris Claiborne #20 of the Kansas City Chiefs tackles Carlos Hyde #23 of the Houston Texans in the second quarter at Arrowhead Stadium on October 13, 2019 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by David Eulitt/Getty Images) /

The KC Chiefs were looking to rebound in week six and unfortunately for them, that wasn’t what happened. The Texans beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead by a score of 31 to 24. The Chiefs are now 4-2.

After losing to the Colts last week, the Kansas City Chiefs were looking for any type of positivity from both sides of the ball in week six against the Houston Texans. Well, they get off to a 17-3 lead, but then things started to implode rather quickly.

Houston went on to score 20 points in the second quarter and led at the half. They took a page out of the Colts’ playbook, running the ball down Kansas City’s throat. To make matters worse, former Chief Carlos Hyde had a huge day, carrying the ball 26 times for 116 yards and the Texans as a whole had 192 yards on the ground.

It’s not a horrible thing to be unable to stop the run if your offense is on point, but the Kansas City Chiefs haven’t had that luxury in several weeks. Patrick Mahomes continues to look hobbled and the offensive line isn’t doing him any favors (though he was only sacked one time, to be fair).

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Mahomes had a decent day, throwing for 273 yards and three touchdowns, but he did throw his first interception of the season. The run game continued to be invisible, rushing for just 53 yards on 11 carries and not doing anything to make people worry any less about the lack of explosiveness there.

The secondary wasn’t awful and limited DeAndre Hopkins to under 50 yards, something I never thought I’d be typing this season. They also picked Deshaun Watson off twice. The Texans receivers could have really made this a lopsided game had they been able to haul in what would have surely been easy touchdowns. That kept Kansas City’s chances of winning alive, but it wasn’t enough.

The pass rush was a joke, with no one even laying a finger on Watson. I know it’s not all on Frank Clark, but when you’re making THAT much money and can’t hit the quarterback, that’s a problem. Clark did force a fumble so he had somewhat of a positive impact on this game, but because of how much money he’s making, him only having one sack on the season is going to continue to be a huge storyline.

What it came down to in this game was that the Kansas City Chiefs can’t stop the run and it’s not like this is new information. This has been a lingering problem for YEARS now and it still hasn’t been addressed. Until it is addressed, this defense has a long ways to go. Oh, not to mention this team can’t get out of their own way, notching 11 penalties on the afternoon.

The Chiefs have now had three straight games where their offense has looked suspect and let’s be real – They were REALLY lucky to get out of Detroit with a win in week four. Injuries have been an issue, yes, but the offense is better than what we’ve seen.

This was a tough loss and now the Chiefs have to turn around on a short week and head to Denver for Thursday Night Football. I know the Broncos are bad, but playing in Denver is tough and this Chiefs team is banged up. That could end up being a closer game than what Chiefs fans are anticipating and if we continue to get this recent offense, Denver could pull off the upset in that one.

There’s no shame losing to the Texans, but now the Chiefs are 1-2 at home and they’re two games behind the Patriots in the AFC playoff standings. That’s disheartening, to say the least.

… but, there’s a lot of football left to be played.

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