DEFENSE: Same Old Story
From Jacksonville, Florida
In some manner, the Chiefs defense played its best game of the season on Sunday against Jacksonville. In other ways, it was one of their worst performances.
That’s the story of the 2009 Kansas City defense: some good things, but too many bad.
For instance, they put at a lot of pressure on Jaguars QB David Garrard throughout the game. But they were able to sack him only once.
They had a large number of negative plays, as they spent a lot of time in the backfield and forced nine minus plays for the Jaguars, including a fumble that was recovered by the Chiefs.
Yet, they gave up another handful of big plays, as Jacksonville had 10 plays of 12 yards or more, including a 61-yard touchdown pass and a 28-yard TD run. There were also plays of 45 and 33 yards.
“It appeared we were out of position on a couple of those plays,” said Todd Haley. “We’re not going to win games or have chances to win many games when we’re giving up big plays and that has been the big problem on defense.”
The long TD throw from Garrard to WR Mike Sims-Walker for 61 yards and the scoring run of 28 yards by RB Rashad Jennings gave the Jaguars a 14-6 lead that they carried into half-time and that changed the tenor of the game for the Chiefs offense.
And the Kansas City defense was unable to provide any plays to help turn momentum around. They gave up a third-quarter field goal and then a long punt return set up the Jaguars offense in great field position in the fourth quarter, and that possession ended with RB Maurice Jones-Drew running 10 yards for a score.
Jones-Drew had 97 yards on 29 carries, but he did not get away from the Chiefs defense like he can with those powerful legs of his. He caught three passes for 37 yards.
“He’s a good running back; he’s always motoring around, running hard, with a lot of effort and he’s hard to bring down,” said DE Glenn Dorsey. “They caught us in a couple of situations and we didn’t make the plays that needed to be made. That’s the bottom line.”
DaJuan Morgan made his first NFL start, stepping in for Jon McGraw at free safety. He finished with six tackles and a fumble recovery.
Remarkably, the press box statisticians had rookie DE Tyson Jackson as the team’s leading tackler with seven. Considering Jackson had just six total tackles in the first seven games and that’s quite a performance.
“I thought we got some good push upfront at times,” Haley said of his defensive front.
The Chiefs did not throw a lot of defensive looks at the Jaguars, playing their basic 3-4 and nickel defenses. CB Mike Richardson was the extra DB in the nickel, joining LBs Derrick Johnson and Jovan Belcher. In the nickel, they rotated defensive linemen, with Ron Edwards and Glenn Dorsey one group, and Alex Magee and Wallace Gilberry the other. It was Gilberry who got the only sack of Garrard.
Johnson got some playing time in the base defense as well, stepping in for a few plays for Demorrio Williams. CB Maurice Leggett also got some plays in the second half at free safety, stepping in for Morgan.
“There were some good things out there, but not enough,” Haley said of his defense.
Lets tell the truth Bob Brown played awful this game. His only good game was week 1 against the Ravens. Other than that he blew the assignment on the long pass to Sims-Walker. He also whiffed on the big run Jennings got. Jackson getting better know surprise I told you give this guy time he’ll get better. Everybody that knows football knows rookie def. lineman don’t come in the NFL and make an impact. Next yr Dorsey and Jackson will be a disruptive force on that defensive line. Now we need to add a young nose tackle in the 3rd or 4th round of the draft.
Also tip for Haley move Page back to starting free safety next year and Morgan to the strong safety as a starter. That will improve the saftey position. Draft a couple of rookie safety in the mid to late rounds of the draft.