The Chiefs’ 3 greatest offensive questions for Saturday’s sport in opposition to the Texans

After sitting out the Wild Card spherical with the AFC’s No. 1 seed, the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs open their playoff schedule this Saturday in opposition to the Houston Texans on GEHA Subject at Arrowhead Stadium.

Let’s contemplate three offensive questions on Kansas Metropolis’s Divisional spherical sport.

1. Can the Chiefs as soon as once more deal with the Texans’ go rush?

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The final time these groups performed, Kansas Metropolis dealt with Houston’s go rushers properly — however they’ll nonetheless be a menace on this matchup.

The Texans’ Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter are among the many league’s greatest edge-rushing duos. Anderson brings a few of the NFL’s greatest speed-to-power instruments. Hunter is a jack-of-all-trades go rusher who can complement Anderson’s skill to crush the pocket. These two can wreck video games — like they did in opposition to the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday — however Houston additionally has strong inside rushers. Effectively into his 30s, Denico Autry continues to be a productive participant.

Head coach DeMeco Ryans additionally does an exquisite job designing strain packages for these gamers. Utilizing stunts, simulated pressures and blitzes, Ryans can exploit an offense’s weaknesses. Towards Los Angeles, Ryans ran quite a lot of tackle-end stunts through which Anderson or Hunter looped inside in opposition to the Chargers’ weak offensive inside to get fast pressures.

Of their Week 16 sport, the Chiefs dealt with most of Houston’s strain properly, maintaining a agency pocket from which quarterback Patrick Mahomes might work. My greatest fear is that Kansas Metropolis possible tackles — Joe Thuney and Jawaan Taylor — don’t have nice bases as offensive tackles. That may be a problem in opposition to Anderson and Hunter. Whereas Thuney did in addition to he might in opposition to Anderson, there have been nonetheless occasions when his lack of size (and mass) was an issue; Anderson might transfer him backward with a bull rush.

On Saturday, Kansas Metropolis will want a sound safety plan — and one other good day from its offensive linemen.

2. Can the Chiefs unlock their play-action sport?

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Ryans comes from the San Francisco 49ers’ pipeline of NFL defensive coordinators, so the Chiefs have loads of expertise enjoying in opposition to this type of protection. They typically assault this type of scheme with play-action passes from underneath heart.

That is more durable to do in opposition to a staff like San Francisco due to linebacker Fred Warner’s protection skill — however Houston doesn’t have a participant like him on the second degree. The Texans’ linebackers are inclined to chunk on run fakes; they’re targeted on getting downhill to make splash performs. This may create play-action alternatives over the center of the sector — notably for tight ends.

In Week 16, Kansas Metropolis didn’t want to make use of a lot play-action so as to transfer the ball — however on Saturday, we’d see extra of it.

3. Will Ryans change his defensive sport plan?

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Within the final matchup, Houston did what it does in opposition to most opponents: play lots of Quarters protection on early downs to restrict explosive performs excessive — and get its safeties screaming downhill within the run suits. In apparent passing downs, the Texans primarily relied on man protection, mixing some 5 or six-man pressures in with the protection’s fearsome entrance 4.

Later calling Week 16’s sport his better of the season, Chiefs’ head coach Andy Reid shredded Houston’s defensive scheme by utilizing movement, formation stacks and bunches and change releases. This gave his extensive receivers a schematic benefit in opposition to Houston’s man protection. With the pace of his receivers, Mahomes wanted solely the tiniest little bit of separation to get the ball to open targets. This fast passing sport additionally helped negate the Texans’ go rush.

Nonetheless, since that is Ryans’ typical defensive method, it’s affordable to anticipate extra of the identical on Saturday.

However what if he decides to alter it?

He’s beforehand demonstrated a capability to craft efficient sport plans for particular groups. Probably the most well-known instance is likely to be one he used in opposition to the Inexperienced Bay Packers in 2021, whereas he was the 49ers’ defensive coordinator. Inexperienced Bay’s offense was constructed across the connection between quarterback Aaron Rodgers and wideout Davante Adams. So Ryans performed Cowl 1-Double on Adams, permitting him to get double-teams on him all around the area. This took the Packers’ offense abruptly, throwing it into disarray.

There’s an opportunity Ryans might look again on the Week 16 sport and resolve he can’t play that means in opposition to Kansas Metropolis once more. To win, the Texans should create a low-scoring sport through which they will depend on their protection. So we might see Ryans use extra zone coverages to maintain the secondary’s eyes on Mahomes, trusting its pace to rally and sort out.

If that’s the best way Houston goes, I might anticipate an enormous day for tight finish Travis Kelce, who might choose the secondary aside by discovering holes and manipulating its zone drops. Kelce doesn’t have as a lot success in opposition to man protection as we used to see — however in opposition to zone coverages, his intelligence (and really feel for house) might help him win.

That is precisely why the Chiefs use a gap play script. It’s particularly designed to disclose precisely what they will anticipate from the opposing protection. As soon as Kansas Metropolis has this info, Reid can tailor his play-calls to beat no matter method the Texans are utilizing.