Two straight losses ought to wake the Kansas City Chiefs up to the fact that this year's team is not unbeatable. The Chiefs, like any other team in the NFL, have their flaws. And while the hope is that some will get fixed in the upcoming weeks, hopefully aided by the addition of a wide receiver, the fact of the matter is that the stars on this team need to play better.
A Week 9 matchup for KC at home, coming off two consecutive losses, against a 2-6 New York Jets should be the perfect storm for the Chiefs to get back to their winning ways. In convincing fashion. But It'll take both sides of the ball to do so, and more importantly, the trench play from the Chiefs to step up to the plate.
Kansas City's big men need to impose their will to end two-game skid
Chris Jones and the Chiefs' defensive line rank tied for last in total team sacks with just nine. They barely average one sack a game, and if you take away the four they tallied in Week 1, that's five sacks in six games.
The pressure rate has been solid, with starting edge rusher George Karlafis and rookie R Mason Thomas combining for 54 QB pressures through seven games. But aside from those two, it's been a couple of nice run stuffs by Ashton Gillotte and a forgotten sack by Felix Anudike-Uzomah from the outside rushers.
As for the interior, the Chiefs will be without first-round rookie Peter Woods in this game, as he is dealing with a neck injury suffered in last week's defeat. It will be a lot of Khyiris Tonga and Bryson Eason at nose tackle, who are primarily ground-game specialists.
The big question mark is whether Chris Jones will leave his imprint on this game. He's yet to do so in any contest so far this season, leaving many Chiefs fans to wonder if a steep drop-off may be occurring in his age-32 campaign.
Consistent movement has to be created by Chiefs offensive line
It's no coincidence that the Chiefs' run game has suffered mightily during this two-game slump. Kenneth Walker III has rushed for a combined 105 yards on 35 attempts (3.0 YPC). That's a far cry from his near seven yards per carry average in his first handful of games as a Chief.
Has Walker, who was on pace at one point this year for over 2,500 yards from scrimmage, instantly forgotten how to play football, or is the offensive line just not playing as well in recent weeks? I'm gonna pretty comfortably go with the ladder.
Kingsley Suamataia is expected to start against the Jets on Sunday afternoon, after his second game this year, being benched for reasons unknown to seemingly anyone but Andy Reid. Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith complete an interior o-line recognized as one of the best in the game when playing to capacity, and when Humphrey isn't snapping the ball frantically.
The Jets are a bottom-third rush defense in the league. If the Chiefs can't get the ground game going with Walker and Emmett Johnson, they might as well pack it in. It will open up the field and allow Mahomes time in the pocket to find his receivers, who may or may not decide to sabotage a play at any given moment.
Add us as a preferred source on Google