Losing sleep; How bad are the flaws the Chiefs showed in their loss to the Chargers?
Friday night's loss showed some potential issues for KC's 2025 squad. Let's talk about how much they're keeping me up at night.
Well, that was painful.
The Chiefs dropped their season opener to the Chargers, 21-27, losing their first game of the season for just the second time of the Patrick Mahomes era. That alone is a bummer, and pretty problematic considering that it was a division game and the Chiefs have an insanely tough early schedule starting with the Eagles next week. But losing isn’t what made it actually painful.
No, what made it painful was the way the loss itself occurred. Or rather, what it appeared to expose.
We’ve all had concerns about various aspects of this Chiefs team heading into the season. That’s just the way the NFL works. No one is perfect. Every team has potential concerns that could prevent them from being as good as they want to be. The hope, of course, is that when the snaps get real those concerns turn out to be overstated, and the sleep you lost worrying about them was unnecessary. Of course, sometimes, those worries turn out to be completely warranted. Imagine, for example, if prior to the season you were worried that the Chiefs would continue to use Chamarri Conner in the slot and he would struggle. It would probably be really frustrating to see it play out in real time. You know, just as a potential example.
The Chiefs only lost by a single score, but they were so woeful on offense in the first half and on defense in the second half that it felt like more. And worse, they demonstrated a lot of the weaknesses that were feared coming into the season… weaknesses that existed last year and weren’t necessarily dealt with.
Here’s how it’s going to work… I’m going to look at the various apparent flaws that were exposed in Brazil on national (global I suppose) television (internet?), discussing each and then rating them based on how much sleep they are going to cause me to loose. While the scale will be somewhat imprecise, I’ll try to give a general idea of just how worried I am about each issue. Some (like WR underperformance) don’t stress me out as much as it may stress some due to contextual factors. Others (like the pass rush, which we’ll start with) have me feeling considerably worse. Let’s get started.
Problem: The pass rush looks anemic
Sleeplessness factor: I might as well have binged meth
Yeah, we’re starting HIGH on the sleeplessness scale. Probably the highest we’re going to get.
Here’s one of the Chargers’ many solid gains against the Chiefs’ pass defense. Notice anything?
If what you noticed was a total lack of pressure on Justin Herbert, you’re not alone. Following a play action from under center (what a concept!), the Chargers keep an extra blocker with an eye on Jones and bring blockers from another angle to deal with Omenihu while leaving Karlaftis 1x1. Derrick Nnadi is left with two blockers on him and isn’t a pass rush threat. And the end result, when Omenihu and Karlaftis can’t get through, is that Herbert has all the time in the world to sit, survey, and throw.
There’s been a lot of conversation about the secondary (the safeties in particular), and I’ll get to that. But the reality is the Chiefs’ pass rush provided almost nothing without defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo dialing up blitzes. It was either, as Geoff Schwartz noted, a Chris Jones win or nothing when Kansas City sent four pass rushers. And the Chargers knew it. So often they would slide protection to Jones or send an extra guy at him, or roll the play away from him, etc. And no one could make them pay for it.
You can’t live that way on defense. One of the reasons Herbert was able to hit receivers on so many of those long-developing crossers was that he had ample time to do so with minimal harassment from the defensive line. That resulted in Spags needing to send extra guys, and as ever, when you NEED to blitz to get pressure that results in predictability and opposing offenses dialing up blitz-beaters in big moments (which is exactly what the Chargers did).
This was a concern last year, and it doesn’t look solved. If teams are able to focus solely on Jones (who had a massive mental error of his own to close out the game, which we’ll come back to) without Karlaftis (in theory the Chiefs’ 2nd fiddle at pass rush given his new contract), Omenihu, Danna, or anyone else making them pay, then we’re going to continue to see opportunities for chunk plays.
This was a banged up and generally underwhelming Chargers offensive line, and the Chiefs weren’t able to win their matchups up front. Yes, situational football had something to do with that (lots of advantageous down and distances for LAC), but even on obvious passing downs the Chiefs weren’t getting home rushing four. That’s a huge, huge, problem, one that existed last year as well, and one that can legitimately drop the floor AND ceiling of a defense.
I may not sleep again based on this alone.
Problem: The safety play looks like it has seriously dropped off
Sleeplessness factor: I drank 5 bai drinks an hour ago and you want me to go to sleep????
Sorry, we’re starting with two very legitimate issues in a row.
Jaden Hicks against the Chargers last night, looking a bit zeroed-in on individual routes rather than taking in the entire picture. That resulted in a few of the defense’s roughest moments, including this 3rd and 15 that resulted in the Chargers getting enough yards to risk going for it on 4th and short.
Here, Conner and Hicks rotated before the snap to give Herbert something to think about. Hicks ends up underneath in something close to a robber role, with Bryan Cook dropping back deep. Hicks lets his eyes get taken completely to the route combination away from him, and through that gives up the middle of the field completely when the CB to that side (Kristian Fulton) is playing inside leverage and expecting help if the ball goes there
Hicks struggled enough in coverage last night that former Chief Justin Reid (MAN I miss that dude) went out of his way to defend Hicks online. That’s how you know it’s a bad night. But it wasn’t just Hicks who struggled in the safety group.