Tag: Defense

Former Chiefs QB Alex Smith: ‘This 49ers defense doesn’t do a lot’

#Chiefs legend Alex Smith seemed confident in Kansas City’s ability to move the ball against the #49ers during a podcast appearance this week.

The Kansas City Chiefs are slight underdogs for their Super Bowl LVIII matchup against the San Francisco 49ers, but one former quarterback who played for both teams likes the defending champion’s chances of escaping Las Vegas, Nevada with their second-consecutive title.

Chiefs legend Alex Smith appeared on The Adam Schefter Podcast this week to break down his thoughts on the highly anticipated matchup between the NFL’s top teams.

In speaking about the 49ers’ defense, Smith didn’t seem sure of their ability to do enough to keep Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City’s offense from taking over the game.

“This 49ers defense doesn’t do a lot,” Smith explained. “They don’t present a lot of volume. I think… they’re going to be in for it. The only chance I think the Niners have to win is a little bit of a shootout, and again, this Chiefs defense just continues to elevate their game.”

Whether Smith’s prediction will prove to come true remains to be seen, but fans in Chiefs Kingdom can rest easy knowing that their former signal-caller is confident in Mahomes’ ability to move the ball against San Francisco’s stout defensive unit.

Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes understands the importance of managing a game

#Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes explained that he understands the importance of managing a game after Kansas City’s win over the #Ravens.

The latest AFC Championship game victory for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs puts them in rare company among the NFL elite in historical context. The success of Mahomes since the beginning of his career is quickly approaching the legendary status of Tom Brady, who coincidentally has the only Super Bowl victory against the Kansas City quarterback.

Mahomes has never made it a secret that he wants to win more accolades and Super Bowl titles before his career is over. He spoke with reporters during the AFC Championship postgame press conference about his willingness to change his aggressive, offensive approach to accommodate the spectacular defensive effort of Kansas City in Sunday’s victory.

“It’s special because that’s a great team and quarterback,” Mahomes explained. “Spags (Steve Spagnuolo), when the games get bigger, when the challenges get higher, he performs even better, and the guys executed the game plan well; they got timely turnovers that play down at the goal line, punching the ball out. I think it was (L’Jarius) Sneed and recovering it. That was a timely turnover.”

Mahomes was aggressive with his passing in the first half as the Chiefs jumped out to an early lead following his 19-yard touchdown pass to Travis Kelce. In the second half, he played a more conservative approach as Kansas City’s defense took control of the game, changing his focus to setting up the run game and protecting the football.

“Whenever they’re rolling like that, I have to kind of manage my game,” Mahomes said. “That’s stuff that I’ve learned throughout the season is even if we’re not having the success that I want to have the defenses rolling and getting stops, just take the safe choice, get the ball out of my hand, don’t turn the ball over and let’s go with a football game.”

Mahomes’ ability to ignore his past ways of being known as a gunslinger for the team’s betterment is the next step in his evolution as a quarterback. He always places the team winning above his personal goals and challenges the game manager’s negative narrative for quarterbacks.

Chiefs DT Chris Jones says DC Steve Spagnuolo should be up for an award this year

Kansas City #Chiefs DL Chris Jones told reporters that DC Steve Spagnuolo should be up for an award this year.

The Kansas City Chiefs are AFC champions for the second consecutive season and fourth time in the last five years.

Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones was a significant reason for the team’s success this year and during the championship run. During Sunday’s postgame press conference after the win over the Baltimore Ravens, he took some time to honor his teammates and defensive coaches for their work to help make the unit a success, campaigning for them to be awarded for their efforts.

“I still think Spags (Steve Spagnuolo) should be up for Assistant Coach of the Year,” Jones said. “I mean, what has [he] been able to do with this defense from last year to this year? And how he was able to overcome a lot of humps, how he was able to force a lot of guys to grow. You look at last year. We gave up a lot of big plays and came back this year.”

Spagnuolo was snubbed as a nominee for the Assistant Coach of the Year Award, presented annually by the Associated Press. This year’s nominees are Ben Johnson (Detroit Lions), Mike Macdonald (Baltimore Ravens), Todd Monken (Baltimore Ravens), Jim Schwartz (Cleveland Browns) and Bobby Slowik (Houston Texans). The winner will be announced at the NFL Honors award ceremony in Las Vegas during Super Bowl weekend.

“I’ll say right now L’Jarius Sneed had an All-Pro year, should have been All-Pro … 22 (Trent McDuffie) had an All-Pro year, and we can go on down the list,” Jones said. “Those guys set the standard on the back end. And we just continue helping with Joe Cullen on the front end.”

Sneed’s hit that forced Zay Flowers to fumble at the goal line was a game-changing moment in Sunday’s victory, while McDuffie silenced Odell Beckham Jr. for most of the game. Sneed and McDuffie both proved their case for more respect around the league.

Chiefs have hardest path to Super Bowl victory since 1981 by DVOA

The #Chiefs will have to go through another defensive juggernaut to secure a victory in Super Bowl LVIII.

Nothing has come easy for the Kansas City Chiefs during the NFL’s 2023 season. Plagued by inconsistency through the regular season, the Chiefs have fought through significant adversity to secure the No. 3 seed in the AFC Playoffs and had to clinch their Super Bowl LVIII berth by winning two road games against the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens.

As it turns out, Kansas City’s path to a Super Bowl victory will prove to be the hardest since 1981 by opposing DVOA, an advanced stat that measures defense-adjusted value over average.

This statistic is popular among analysts due to its ability to quantify a defense’s effectiveness and serves as a measuring stick to rank teams based on their defensive efficiency.

No offense since 1981 has had to battle against as many high-quality defenses as Kansas City en route to a Super Bowl victory.

If the Chiefs manage to secure their second-straight championship against the San Francisco 49ers, this factoid may be the most impressive aspect of their victory.

Why do people think Boston’s Sam Hauser is a bad defender?

Teams somehow still think that the Virginia alum is still a bad defender.

Early in his NBA career, reserve Boston Celtics forward Sam Hauser was a bit of a liability on the defensive end, but then most younger players tend to be as they find their way in the league. But for whatever reason (Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla thinks it might be because Hauser is White), teams somehow still think that the Virginia alum is still a bad defender.

But Hauser has really worked on that aspect of his game, and is truly a solid if not especially remarkable defender able to guard up or down a bit from the small forward position. He makes few mistakes on either end of the court, and has even learned to leverage the inexplicable extra targeting he gets on the defensive end of the court to his (and Boston’s) advantage.

The hosts of the CLNS Media “Talkin’ Cs / How Bout Them Celtics!” podcasts linked up to dig into Hauser as a defender as well as other recent topics du jour.

Check it out above!

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

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We need to talk about the Chicago Bulls’ defense

Will the Bulls be able to leverage this development into salvaging some of their season?

We need to talk about the Chicago Bulls’ defense so far this season. There has never been high expectations for a team with Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic, and DeMar DeRozan as their primary stars, with the trio known much more for their skills on the offensive end of the court.

Even with the additions of Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso, two plus backcourt defenders, the Bulls at their best have never been a lockdown ball club on that end of the court save the 2021-22 season. But with Ball out indefinitely, that Chicago is finding ways to be a respectable team on defense this season, especially in clutch time.

Will the Bulls be able to leverage this development into salvaging some of their season? Or should Chicago pull the plug on this version of the team to build for the future?

The hosts of the “Bulls Central” podcast recently took a deep dive into all of this on a recent episode. Check it out above!

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Too-early prediction of Michigan football 2024 starting defense

This unit looks incredible — and experienced. #GoBlue

The 2023 college football season hasn’t even been in the books for two full weeks, but with all of the off-field drama taking place across the sport, Michigan football’s national championship win almost feels like it took place months ago.

All eyes are turning to 2024 with teams aggressively hitting the transfer portal with teams losing a great deal via the same method (such as Alabama). Coaching changes are being made across the board, as well. While the situation is far from settled in Ann Arbor with Jim Harbaugh interviewing with NFL teams, we have a pretty good idea of what the starting defense could look like, even in mid-January.

Here is our too-early prediction of the 2024 Michigan defensive starters.

Chiefs led NFL in unblocked QB pressures during 2023 regular season

The #Chiefs led the NFL in unblocked pressures during the 2023 regular season.

The Kansas City Chiefs’ defensive turnaround in 2023 was as impressive as it was surprising to many fans who grew accustomed to the team’s offense-first approach in the Patrick Mahomes era.

Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo managed to change the narrative around his unit this season, and the Chiefs’ ferocious pass rush played an integral role in making Kansas City’s defense a menacing force in the AFC.

According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats Twitter page, Spagnuolo’s innovative schemes in 2023 generated the most unblocked quarterback pressures in the league.

While the Jacksonville Jaguars and New England Patriots came close to matching Kansas City’s 73 unblocked pressures, the Chiefs stood atop the NFL’s leaderboard in the category at season’s end.

Hassling opposing quarterbacks always serves to bolster a defense’s firepower in key moments, and Spagnuolo should be expected to continue leveraging his ability to get blitzers clear lanes to the backfield against the Buffalo Bills this weekend.

George Paton details Broncos’ improvement in 2023

Broncos GM George Paton said the club made huge improvements on special teams in 2023. The offense and defense took steps forward, too.

The Denver Broncos did not qualify for the playoffs in 2023, but the team did take a step forward from previous seasons.

During his end-of-season press conference last week, Broncos general manager George Paton was asked what areas he believed the team progressed the most during the 2023 campaign.

“Special teams. We were in the bottom of the league in special teams my first two years here. [It] depends on what rankings you look at. If you look at [Mike] Westhoff’s, we’re first,” Paton said jokingly. “But we’re probably in the top five. That was a big emphasis.

“We’ve been trying to get there, and I give credit to Mike Westhoff, Ben Kotwica and Chris Banjo for what they did. We [also brought] in some players. You have [Marvin] Mims, you have Riley Moss, and you have Tremon Smith. Special Teams was a big jump.”

Rick Gosselin, who ranks all 32 special teams units after each season, ranked the Broncos seventh in 2023 (a big improvement from 25th in 2022).

Paton also noted improvements on defense and offense under new coach Sean Payton.

“On defense, like Sean [has] talked about, the defense formed an identity after about six or seven games with physicality and creating turnovers,” Paton said. “That was huge for our team.

“The offense — we were running the ball pretty good. Obviously late in the year, we didn’t, but on offense, the identity was physicality and ball control. We didn’t turn it over much. We need to get better in both of those phases, but that’s where the jump was from prior years.”

Denver’s offense improved from averaging 16.9 points per game in 2022 to 21.0 PPG in 2023. Still not the kind of number Payton is aiming for, but a notable improvement. The club’s biggest area of improvement was undoubtedly on special teams.

So while the 2023 campaign did not end the way the Broncos hoped it would, Payton’s first season in charge did represent a step in the right direction for Denver.

Follow the Broncos Wire Podcast:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

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Ranking the top 10 defensive players to play under Nick Saban at Alabama

Ranking the top 10 defensive players to play at Alabama during the Nick Saban Era.

There will be a lot of people asking the question as to who the best players were during Nick Saban’s tenure at Alabama. Well, there may not be a definitive answer. He coached a lot of talented players during his career in Tuscaloosa.

There is no denying the fact that Saban was one of the best coaches in the country in terms of developing players. He expected every one of his players to be the best versions of themselves. Saban pushed everyone to succeed and reach all of their goals.

Saban wanted all of his guys to reach their maximum potential whether it be on offense, on defense, or on special teams. It didn’t matter to him.

Roll Tide Wire ranks the top 10 defensive players to play under Nick Saban at Alabama.