Arrowhead Pride
On Friday night, the Kansas City Chiefs dropped their season opener to the Los Angeles Chargers. The team’s 27-21 loss was only by six points — mostly because quarterback Patrick Mahomes was fantastic in the fourth quarter, giving the team a shot to win — but there were still plenty of concerns raised in the matchup.
Most of these issues were on defense. Los Angeles quarterback Justin Herbert averaged 9.4 yards per passing attempt. To give that some context, Lamar Jackson led the league in 2024 with 8.8 yards per attempt.
Let’s examine these defensive issues one by one.
On Friday night, the Chiefs were completely unable to get pressure with four pass rushers. Herbert was fantastic, but who wouldn’t be when the opposing defense can’t get any pressure?
We saw it the most on early downs, when the Chargers’ offensive coordinator Greg Roman was calling deep play-action concepts to attack downfield. These require time to develop. Los Angeles would load up with six or seven pass protectors to block for these downfield throws. Herbert would turn towards the defense and feel no pressure at all. He rarely had to step up, evade a rusher or even break contain.
Even on high-leverage passing downs (such as third-and-long), Kansas City could only get pressure by blitzing. Some of the overload blitzes worked; Kansas City’s linebackers were able to beat the Los Angeles running backs in pass protection. But defenses can’t always blitz — particularly when its defensive backs have issues of their own. To mount a successful pass rush, a defense has to be able to get pressure with four — and on Friday, the Chiefs couldn’t do it.
It was a poor performance all the way across the defensive line. Chris Jones looked disinterested as he fought through double-teams. George Karlaftis wasn’t winning his one-on-ones against a backup right tackle. Mike Danna and Charles Omenihu showed little.
But what concerns me most is that the Chargers’ offensive line isn’t even very good. Joe Alt has moved from the right to the left, subbing in for the injured Rashawn Slater. The line has weaknesses along the interior, too — so I expected the Kansas City pass rush to take a step forward. What will happen when the Chiefs are up against a better offensive line?
Over the summer, I became increasingly worried about Kansas City’s depth at cornerback. Friday’s game made me worry even more.
In the first half, safety Chamarri Conner was getting torched in the slot. There were multiple plays where he bit hard on bootlegs and lost contain in the flat. In man coverage, he couldn’t cover one-on-one. In zone coverage, he was often in the wrong spot — and when he was where he was supposed to be, he struggled to contain the wideouts for whom he was responsible.
So in the second half, cornerback Kristian Fulton came into the game. This allowed the team to...
