Film Review: Chiefs pass rush finally gets home against Dolphins
Coming into Sunday's game against Miami the Chiefs defensive line had 5 sacks in their last 8 games. The defensive line is the highest paid position group on the team and in the league. They were not producing sacks at a rate worth what they were paid. Especially the two highest players on the defensive line Chris jones and Frank Clark, who both hadn't gotten a sack since November 8th against the Panthers. The team overall was 24th in the league in sacks before the Dolphins game.
But on Sunday against the Dolphins the defensive line exploded for 4 sacks with Chris Jones, Frank Clark, Mike Danna and Tershawn Wharton each getting one sack. The Chiefs capitalized on the inexperienced offensive line of the Dolphins and a young quarterback who holds onto the ball for way too long. They used these variables to get pressure on Tua all day long.
I'm now going to breakdown the plays that ended in sacks:
Even though this is a coverage sack Mike Danna (51) shows tremendous power as he pushes back the right tackle all the way toward the quarterback and as soon as Tua steps up Danna breaks off from his man and takes Tua down for the sack.
This was a huge play right before halftime with the Dolphins driving the ball down the field Frank Clark (55) uses a speed rush and with help from Tanoh Kpassagnon pushing the left guard Clark is able to get around the left tackle and bring down Tua this effectively ended the dolphins drive and didn't allow them to score again before halftime.
This safety allowed the Chiefs to go up 30-10 in the third quarter. Derrick Nnadi (91) and Alex Okafor (57) clear out their blockers allowing Chris Jones and Mike Danna to get to the quarterback for the sack and the safety.
Probably my favorite pass rush rep from the game Tershawn Wharton (98) fakes right and blows around the guard very fast and sacks the quarterback. Wharton has displayed insane athleticism all season and it shows up in this play.
This performance showed the potential that the pass rush can have but they need to do it against a good offensive line and get pressure consistently. They have a chance this week against the Saints who have a very good offensively line so hopefully they can somewhat replicate the performance of Sunday.