Chiefs safety Daniel Sorensen has a “Wanna get away?” first half against Bills

Chiefs safety Daniel Sorensen is not a deep defender. The Chiefs keep treating him as if he is. The results have been sadly predictable.

The Chiefs knew what was coming, and they have been unable to stop it so far. “It,” of course, being the Bills’ passing offense in the first half of their Sunday night tussle. Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen completed seven of 14 passes for 219 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions in the first half, and were it not for a few easy drops from his running backs, things could have been even worse for a Chiefs pass defense that has been getting torched all season.

In that first half, the primary issue was safety Daniel Sorensen, a smart, impactful player when he’s asked to roam at the short and intermediate levels. What he’s not built to do is to cover deep, and the Bills took advantage of this schism on their two biggest plays in the first half. First, there was this 61-yard completion to receiver Stefon Diggs with 4:56 left in the first half in which Sorensen was, for whatever reason, assigned to take Diggs up the chute.

The results were less than optimal for the home team.

Sorensen managed to recover to make the tackle and prevent a touchdown, but this coverage was broken before the ball was snapped.

Then, with 1:26 left in the first half, there was this 53-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dawson Knox. Here, Sorensen had Knox through the route — it was a single-high coverage in which a pre-snap two-deep look switched, as safety Juan Thornhill spun to the deep third, and safety Tyrann Mathieu was spying Allen, who’s always a running threat. That left Sorensen as the sole gatekeeper, which… well, you know how that song goes.

Mathieu may need a hug at halftime.

Leading up to the game, Sorensen was quite aware of the communication and schematic issues plaguing the defending AFC champs on that side of the ball.

“Hey, that’s what we’re out here to do,” Sorensen said on Wednesday. “We’re going to go out here today and tomorrow and Friday and put in work and hammer away at it. Each week you expect to improve and that’s what we talk about is chase improvement. So, we’ll identify areas that we need to get better at, and there’s lots of them honestly, and we’ll just keep chipping away at it like we always do and then continue to improve week in and week out.”

The thing is, Sorensen isn’t a great deep coverage guy. Never has been. He’s a good box defender. So, when you’re pointing fingers here, perhaps direct your ire at defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who keeps putting Sorensen in these situations.