Arrowhead Pride
On Thanksgiving Day, the Kansas City Chiefs suffered a back-breaking 31-28 loss to the Dallas Cowboys that pushed their record to 6-6.
While the game was full of low moments for Kansas City, the defense’s poor performance loomed large. Outside of the opening drive, the Chiefs’ secondary struggled — and the defensive line failed to put pressure on the Cowboys’ quarterback Dak Prescott.
Kansas City registered only six quarterback hits — and just four were from the defensive line. Prescott completed 27 of 39 passes for 320 yards and two touchdowns, delivering the ball to wide receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens with ease.
It was a rough game for the pass rush — and its lack of success strained the entire defense.
A week after he propelled Kansas City to a victory against the Indianapolis Colts, defensive tackle Chris Jones did all he could against Dallas. While he didn’t record a sack, he was the only Chiefs player who consistently pressured Prescott — even though he was double-teamed on half of the pass-rushing snaps he played.
Prescott utilized a quick passing game — featuring multiple slants and other quick hitters — to complete passes to Lamb and Pickens. Kansas City’s defensive backs struggled to guard the larger receivers. It seemed like the only way to force incompletions was when Jones applied pressure.
Of the 17 pass-rushing snaps where Jones was blocked one-on-one, he won eight of them — which is even more notable because for most of the game, the ball was out of Prescott’s hands in less than three seconds.
Less than a week after his heroic effort to rally Kansas City against Indianapolis, Jones once again did his part — but the rest of the team couldn’t come through.
Late in the game, the frustration of the long season (and the short week) boiled over.
Here, Jones is one-on-one against rookie guard Tyler Booker. He tries to win the A-gap — but initially, Booker powers down to block him. Prescott has nothing, so he leaves the pocket. Jones fights over Booker’s block, putting himself in position to stop the quarterback or draw a holding call. Linebacker Nick Bolton is also in pursuit, which should make this an easy stop for Kansas City.
But safety Chamarri Conner leaves the flat to pursue Prescott — which leaves the running back wide open in the end zone. Prescott dumps it down for a score — and afterward, Jones is visibly frustrated with Conner.
Outside of Jones, no other Kansas City player was able to create consistent pressure. For the defensive line, it was one of the worst games of the season.
Defensive ends George Karlaftis, Mike Danna and Charles Omenihu all failed to create pressure. Outside of Jones, the only Kansas City defensive lineman to put pressure on Prescott for even one snap was nose tackle Derrick Nnadi.
On this play-action look, Jones is double-teamed off...
