The Kansas City Chiefs pass rush had quite the Week 9 explosion, totaling five team sacks, and even more QB hits and pressures. They had Geno Smith seeing ghosts, especially in the second half. Chris Jones came alive for the first time this year, and George Karlaftis continued what has been a career-best campaign, each getting a pair of sacks.
However, while the Chiefs no longer rank last in the league in sacks, they are bottom-third in the all-important statistic, hoping to carry the momentum into Week 10 against the Atlanta Falcons. Michael Penix Jr. hasn't been taken down a lot this year, with Atlanta allowing just nine takedowns on its starting quarterback in seven games played.
I believe sacks to be more of a quarterback stat than an offensive line stat. And the Falcons have a relatively solid offensive line, so the sacks that Penix has taken this year have largely been on him, but they haven't come all that often.
His average time to throw the ball is just over 2.60 seconds; he feels the pocket pretty well and can escape and run if needed. But for a Chiefs pass rush with so many added pieces this past offseason, there are no excuses for not creating some havoc in the pocket.
The Kansas City Chiefs should feast on an overwhelmed Michael Penix Jr. by way of both a four-man pass rush and creative, well-timed Steve Spagnuolo blitzes
The Chiefs blitz rate under Steve Spagnuolo ever since he took over as defensive coordinator in 2019 has been amongst the highest in the NFL. But this year, Spags, for some reason, has pulled back on his aggression and trusted the front four to generate itself.
Last week against a poor-quality opponent, that plan worked. The Chiefs' two best pass-rushers took advantage of a bad team. Now I'm not saying the Falcons are a good team. They're 3-6. But they do have a quality O-line with a mobile QB, and more offensive weapons than the Jets.
I would expect to see a lot of different defensive packages today to confuse Penix in the pocket and speed up his progressions, which will make him panic. And the one thing about Penix is that if you rattle him enough, he will break.
And on the plays where he does freeze up, that's when I expect to see a corner or linebacker blitz right up the gaps to take him down. It's why Chamarri Conner is a player to watch for me in this game and why I think Kansas City will rack up a few more sacks this week.
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