The Kansas City Chiefs are No. 2 in Touchdown Wire’s power rankings for the fifth consecutive week. They notched a 35-31 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 11. It was an important win for the team as it helps them maintain their stranglehold over the AFC West division. The team managed to accomplish it without their No. 2 receiver and their All-Pro right tackle.
Despite the win, this wasn’t exactly a good game for the Chiefs. The results exposed that the defense could perhaps the fatal flaw in this 2020 team, in a similar fashion as it was back in the 2018 season.
Here is a preview of what Mark Schofield wrote about the team this week:
“Not to rain on the Chiefs’ parade right now, but there might be cause for concern with their defense. The Raiders had receivers open almost all game, and if this defense is going to struggle, that might make things tough for this team as the stretch run winds into the playoffs. Sure, the Chiefs have more than enough firepower to score on any team in the league, but if the day comes that the offense is off, or a mistake or two is made early in the game, the Chiefs might find themselves on the losing end. It is the 2018-2019 model, when Kansas City’s defense was a weakness and they lost in the AFC Championship Game after getting down early to the Patriots.”
The defense was definitely a problem during this game, but they also did do a good job in one area. They held Raiders running backs to under 100 total yards on the day. That’s a pretty big deal seeing as the run defense had been a problem to this point of the season.
The lack of pressure was apparent, but they’ve actually had fewer pressures in five games this season.
The #Chiefs recorded 17 pressures (1 hit, 16 hurries) against the #Raiders on Sunday per @PFF. They've actually had five games this season with fewer pressures (Weeks 2-5 and Week 8).
— Charles Goldman (@goldmctNFL) November 23, 2020
Schofield is right that the Chiefs left some receivers open, but to my eye, this looked to be by design. They played softer coverage to avoid getting beat on the explosive plays. Remember, Kansas City surrendered five plays of 44 yards or more against Las Vegas in Week 5. This week, the longest play surrendered was 29 yards.
Yes, this game was reminiscent of the 2018 season, but we’ve seen the other end of the stick from this defense before. We know they can force turnovers and play lockdown coverage on the back end. They have seven games this season where they’ve allowed 20 or fewer points. If they can get back to playing that type of defense for a few of these games down the stretch, they’ll be in good shape heading into the playoffs.
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