DEFENSE: Redemption For Mike Brown

From Oakland, California

Just one week before and a continent away from the cramped visitors quarters in the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Mike Brown stood up and grabbed the handles of the Chiefs loss to the Jaguars and p laced them squarely on his shoulders.

“I feel like I cost my team the game,” Brown said of a missed tackle and a blown coverage that led to a pair of Jacksonville touchdowns.

Seven days later, the media sought him out again. But this time he was smiling. The second of Brown’s two interceptions sealed the Chiefs victory over the Raiders with just a few ticks left on the clock.

For one week at least, there was redemption for the 10-year veteran.

“There is going to be some bad, and there is going to be some good,” Brown said. “Hopefully there is more good than bad. At least that’s the way I look at it. I want to play perfect, but have I ever played perfect? No. It will probably never happen, but you still strive to be perfect.

“I just try to play hard and let the chips fall where they may.”

The chips fell into Brown’s hands on this afternoon, especially that final interception that ended a late Raiders attempt at a comeback victory.

“It wasn’t a well thrown ball; it was kind of high,” Brown said of QB Bruce Gradkowski’s throw. “The ball got tipped in the air and I was in the right spot.”

His first interception was much the same, as he grabbed a Gradkowski throw earlier in the fourth quarter that had bounced off WR Johnnie Lee Higgins hands, through CB Brandon Flowers hands and into Brown’s mitts.

“That seems to be the only way I get interceptions from tips and overthrows,” Brown said.

Those tips did not come as a surprise to Brown.

“He told me before the game he was going to get one,” Todd Haley said. “He did better than that. He got me two.”

“I had the feeling,” Brown confirmed. “I told him I was going to get at least one.”

One of the best ways for any struggling defense to improve is to face the Raiders. Coming into the game, Oakland was the worst offense in the league, averaging just 215.8 yards per game. They got more than that against the Chiefs, picking up 272 yards, but they managed only a single touchdown, that on the first possession of the game.

OLB Tamba Hali absolutely drove the left side of the Oakland offensive line crazy on the pass rush. LT Mario Henderson was hit with two holding calls and should have had many more. Hali and DE Wallace Gilberry shared a sack of Russell, while rookie DE Alex Magee got a sack of Gradkowski.

That big-play problem got the Chiefs defense on its very first series on the field, when RB Michael Bush went 60 yards through the right side of the defense and set up the Raiders only touchdown of the game.

“After that play, we really battened down things and I don’t think we gave up many big plays after that,” said Brown.

Over the rest of the game, the Chiefs gave up 212 yards, or 3.4 yards for ever Oakland offensive snap.

The Chiefs were also able to get the job done defensively without OLB Mike Vrabel, who left the game with what the team is calling a knee injury. Vrabel walked off the field with just under nine minutes to play in the third quarter and he was replaced by Andy Studebaker. This was Studebaker’s first NFL regular-season action at outside linebacker and he did a very good job handling the duties. He was credited with five tackles on defense and another in the kicking game.

“I always practice and watch tape as if I’m going to play,” said Studebaker. “When it comes to game day, whether you are in or not in, it’s familiar.”

Studebaker got extra practice snaps last week because Vrabel was nursing a hip injury and didn’t work in two of the three practices.

“The more you prepare, the more the game slows down for you,” Studebaker said. “That’s my goal every week. You never know what’s going to happen, just be ready.”

Vrabel didn’t sit on the bench and watch the sea gulls circle the stadium. He was in Studebaker’s ear every time he came off the field.

“He’s a true leader,” Studebaker said of Vrabel. “He talked me through situations, helped me with my fits and just making sure I was on top of the situations. That’s a testament of what kind of leader he is; he could have sat there, but he was making sure the young guys knew what they were doing.”

The Chiefs continued to tinker with their personnel on defense. This week, the nickel package had Maurice Leggett replacing Jon McGraw at free safety, with DL Wallace Gilberry and Alex Magee on the rush with Hali, Vrabel/Studebaker, Derrick Johnson and Jovan Belcher.

Flowers got tested twice deep, as first Hayward-Bey and then Louis Murphy went deep down the middle on him. Both plays ended up being long incomplete passes.