How did the Chiefs' pass rush succeed without Chris Jones vs PIT?
Examining who stepped up, and how the back end of the defense did more heavy lifting than it's getting credit for.
When it became apparent that superstar and potential defensive player of the year Chris Jones (who has been awesome this season and is generating an insane amount of pressure despite frequent double teams, regardless of sack numbers going down) was not going to suit up against the Steelers, I confess that I was worried.
I’ve written this year that the Chiefs’ pass rush, absent Jones, has not been consistently getting it done when sending four guys. That resulted in defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo having to rely on blitzes, which resulted in more predictable coverages (there’s only so much you can do on the back end when you’re sending 5-6 guys), which resulted in the pass defense taking a clear step back. This was especially true given some of the coverage issues on the back end after Jaylen Watson went down with an injury and multiple players struggled to fill his shoes (though I stand by the idea that Josh Williams has done the most). Charles Omenihu’s return has, for the second season in a row, been a boost, but those issues remained on certain 3rd down snaps in particular.
The largest concern for me was that Wilson would have time to throw some of those legendary moon balls to George Pickens and Mike Williams, an area the Chiefs defense has been somewhat vulnerable this season. Could Omenihu, George Karlaftis, Mike Danna, and Tershawn Wharton do enough to get after the quarterback (helped by Spags’ scheming) in a way that would slow down the Steelers?
Turns out, I needn’t had worried. Starting from the first drive of the game, Kansas City’s passing defense had one of its stronger performances.
The Chiefs recorded 5 sacks against Pittsburgh and were able to hit or otherwise hurry Russell Wilson multiple other times, and the Steelers were largely unable to get anything going through the air. It was an unexpected but pleasant result, and it led me to wonder why the supporting cast pass rushers appeared to have so much more success against PIT than they have been throughout the season.
With that in mind, I went back and charted every dropback in which the Chiefs managed to pressure Wilson, looking at down and distance as well as how the pressure occurred. And what I found was an interesting lesson into the complementary dynamics of pass rush and coverage, the way game script can alter how pressure appears live… and some potentially good news about a player who has been far too quiet this season with perhaps some good news for the defense as a whole (while maybe throwing a LITTLE cold water on the idea that the pass rush suddenly became high-level without Jones).
That’s a lot to cover. Let’s talk Chiefs’ pass rush, but more importantly, how the entire defense as a whole stepped up against Pittsburgh.