Arrowhead Pride
In the Week 5 edition of “Monday Night Football,” the Kansas City Chiefs fell to 2-3 with a 31-28 road loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The game was full of mistakes as the Chiefs failed to execute in key situations. Still, Kansas City managed to generate some pass rush against the Jaguars’ quarterback Trevor Lawrence, sacking him three times.
Outside of these, though, the Chiefs couldn’t generate consistent pressure. They finished with only seven total pressures and four quarterback hits.
Late in the game, these pass-rushing issues were especially prominent. Jacksonville marched down the field to score the go-ahead touchdown as time expired.
But early on, there were some bright spots. Defensive end Charles Omenihu played his best game of the season, recording a sack and forcing a holding penalty that pushed the Jaguars behind the sticks.
Star defensive tackle Chris Jones was double-teamed for almost the entire game. Omenihu was the only defender who was able to capitalize on the resulting one-on-one opportunities.
While the pass rush wasn’t totally dormant, it just wasn’t consistent enough to truly rattle Lawrence, who found the most success on first-down shots and late-game drives.
Jacksonville created chunk plays on early downs by using the threat of its running game to force the Chiefs into base looks that slowed their pass rush.
On this first down, the Jaguars come out in 11 personnel. The tight end aligns as an H-back, while wide receiver Travis Hunter bunches close to the line. Kansas City isn’t quite in its base alignmment, but the defensive line shows it is expecting a run. On the snap, Lawrence sells a run fake before pulling the ball and dropping back.
The tight end chips Jones before releasing — and Jones is quickly double-teamed. Mike Danna drops, Drue Tranquill blitzes but is picked up. Nick Bolton nearly breaks through on a stunt with Jones, but misses the tackle. Neither Ashton Gillotte nor Jerry Tillery generate pressure — and Lawrence flips the field with a deep ball.
These big first-down plays kept Kansas City’s defense guessing, providing Jacksonville with favorable field position throughout the game.
Starting with an excellent field position, the Jaguars got the ball back with under two minutes to play, trailing the Chiefs by four. Early in the drive, the Chiefs had some success — and appeared poised to escape with a win.
Here we see a highly coordinated pass-rushing look where Jones splits the double team and flushes Lawrence from the pocket. George Karlaftis intentionally rushes wide to clear traffic, while Leo Chenal disguises his spy role until the last possible moment. Jones initiates the pressure while Karlaftis and Chenal step in to finish the play, which leads to a big third down.
But on that third-and-long, Kansas City showed an exotic look that it couldn’t quite execute.
With walkups all over the line, Jacksonville uses a man-on-man blocking scheme to protect its five most dangerous gaps. This...
