Run Defense

NFL Network's assessment of why The Chiefs have no chance of stopping The Ravens' running game...

NFL Videos: Wild Card Playbook: Ravens-Chiefs preview

My assessment of why The Chiefs are able to play run defense...

Frank Gore - 15 carries, 43 yards, 2.9 Average.

Arian Foster - 18 Carries, 71 Yards, 3.9 Average.

MJD - 16 Carries, 47 Yards, 2.9 Average.

Steven Jackson - 19 Carries, 67 Yards, 3.5 Average.

Chris Johnson - 14 Carries, 58 Yards, 4.1 Average.

With the exception of The Raiders, teams who come into the game known for their running games have not done well at it, against The Chiefs.

What would be far more of a concern, to me, is the success of HBs catching the ball out of the backfield.

Cam Cameron has a history of getting alot of receiving yards out of his HBs. And Ray Rice has had a couple of games (80 yards and a TD against The Saints, 66 Yards against Houston, 47 Yards against Tampa Bay.) where he has been quite successful with that.

The Chiefs could have taken care of that with simple adjustments. They want to put so many big men at the line? Fine, that means you bring up more men to the line and believe in your cover guys.

It was pretty clear to me after watching that the Chiefs really weren't playing to win that game and were trying to hide the majority of what they're going to show the Ravens.

As far as the problems they state about Cassel. He's not great at throwing on the run. He's great at scrambling around, but he HAS to set his feet to be accurate. All up to the big boys up front.

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Originally Posted by Three7s

The Chiefs could have taken care of that with simple adjustments. They want to put so many big men at the line? Fine, that means you bring up more men to the line and believe in your cover guys.

It was pretty clear to me after watching that the Chiefs really weren't playing to win that game and were trying to hide the majority of what they're going to show the Ravens.

As far as the problems they state about Cassel. He's not great at throwing on the run. He's great at scrambling around, but he HAS to set his feet to be accurate. All up to the big boys up front.

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Agreed, the points that were made in that video were made about a single team though. Certainly the Ravens could come in and do the same thing, but we have seen that now on defense and the defense should be able to adjust.

The points made on offense are the ones that concern me more. Cassel, I have said all season is a guy I think can be the future of this team, but he is not the guy we can put the weight of the game on.

If Bowe still comes up with a case of the drops, then we effectively have one other target, Moeaki. Moeaki has shown he can catch the ball, but is largely short yardage, and does not have a lot of yards after the catch.

I think our defense can step up and keep us in this game. I felt they did a good job against the Raiders, the offense has to control the clock. We have to get plays and move the ball. We have to have good play on the line of scrimmage, or this is going to be a long game.

Our running game is going to be tested this game. The Ravens are one of the best against the run, but they are only slightly better than the 49ers and we had a great game.

If the offensive line shows up, we can win this game, if not, we are going to go home disappointed.

But I can see why these analysts do not put a lot of stake in our chances. They do however, play the game, so anything can happen.

The Run D to me is going to be key if we are even in the game at the end. If Ray Rice goes off for a monster game then I really don't think that we will have much of a shot to win. That would take the crowd out of the game and we need them to step up for sure. I say we shut them down and not have to worry about any of that.