Kansas City Chiefs

Chiefs Film Room: What happened to Bob Sutton?

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Oct 11, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Bob Sutton walks on the field before the game against the Chicago Bears at Arrowhead Stadium. The Bears won 18-17. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

What’s wrong with the Kansas City Chiefs? We take a deep look.

Recency bias is a hard thing to avoid when a season is only 16 games long. It’s even harder to avoid when your team gets absolutely obliterated on prime time. So when I say that the Chiefs pass rush is probably this team’s biggest weakest, I am fully aware this statement is heavily influenced by the four pressure performance last Sunday.

That’s right, the Chiefs managed to only get pressure on Roethlisberger a measly four times… it was like watching the 2012 Chiefs all over again (yeah, the Crennel Chiefs).

There are some things that immediately jumped to mind when watching this pass rush:

While these three issues are all troubling in their own right, my biggest takeaway from the game is what happened to mad scientist Bob Sutton? I mean, sure he didn’t have his best pieces at his disposal, but that hardly justifies the unimaginative, blasé play calls we saw on a repeated basis. And it makes it all the more infuriating because Sutton has shown he’s fully capable of manufacturing pressure when he’s down a man or two!

Oct 2, 2016; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Jesse James (81) celebrates a touchdown in front of Kansas City Chiefs defensive back Ron Parker (38) during the first half at Heinz Field. Mandatory Credit: Jason Bridge-USA TODAY Sports

Rather than attempt to manufacture pressure against the Steelers, Sutton went the literal opposite direction – rush only three or four and drop the rest into coverage. Sure that theory sounds all fine and dandy, but haven’t we learned by now that the top QBs love facing that strategy? Evidently, somebody failed to brief Bob:

That’s the pocket Roethlisberger had on the 2-point conversion after the first touchdown. Odds of getting pressure here are pretty minuscule, while the odds of a receiver shaking the coverage are sky-high. The scheme didn’t work as the Steelers cashed in, so surely Sutton changed things up the next red-zone trip:

Guess not.

Antonio Brown is literally guaranteed to get open when you give him that much time. If the Eagles dismantling of the Steelers taught us anything, it was that you limit Brown by not giving Ben enough time to find him (I use the word “limit” loosely). Evidently, Sutton somehow thought that notion was preposterous.

The next screenshot is of the Roethlisberger’s third red-zone score in the first half – and you already know what’s coming:

C’mon, Bob! You’ve been picked apart twice already on three-man rushes in the red zone and decide to roll it out again? What was the thinking here – third time’s the charm? It’s Sutton’s fourth year as Chiefs defensive coordinator, and we’re still waiting for evidence he’s willing to make adjustments on the fly. I should really stop waiting, shouldn’t I…

It’s not like Sutton rushed three on every single snap (although you’d be forgiven for thinking so). On some occasions, he allowed his OLBs to get after Roethlisberger. But as we all know, without Houston this group isn’t capable of repeatedly winning one-on-ones.

Here we have Ford and Hali coming off the edges. The RB doesn’t even stay in to block, so there is no help for either of the Steeler tackles. Yet both guys get harmlessly driven around the QB, not even causing him to flinch.

Nov 2, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; New York Jets running back Chris Johnson (21) is tackled by Kansas City Chiefs outside linebacker Tamba Hali (91) during the second half at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs won 24-10. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

I’m not knocking Hali, but counting on a 32-year old with balky knees to win one-on-one matchups consistently doesn’t seem like a sound strategy. Sutton has to give Hali and the rest of this defense help through play design, yet he refused to do so at all last Sunday.

This time Sutton tries to change things up by rushing four d-linemen, but once again Roethlisberger has all day to wait on Brown to get open. Through four games, the Chiefs d-line hasn’t shown the ability to pressure QBs on a regular basis. But does Sutton adapt his scheme to compensate for this? Nope, he just keeps trotting out the same old vanilla schemes hoping things will suddenly click. Well, the only thing clicking on Sunday was the Steelers offense.

A coach’s job, first and foremost, is to put his guys in the best possible position to succeed. And while the definition of success is relative, I feel fairly confident that not getting embarrassed qualifies. Sutton completely failed to put this defense in a position to succeed last Sunday; they never stood a chance.

Hopefully Sutton makes good use of this bye week, because with the Raiders and Saints coming up, this defense needs the Mad Scientist back.