Zigeunerzelt » What’s the best Christmas present you received this year?

I was lucky enough to get a fetching pair of dinosaur socks Justin Coleman Color Rush Jersey , a pencil carrying my new motto for life—“you probably need another coffee”—and a delicious bottle of Guinness Original XX. Yet none of these wonderful presents ranked first. Instead, it was the Seattle Seahawks who came bearing the finest of gifts: a victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. Wrapped in Pete Carroll’s scheming brilliance, the defense played one hell of a game. That may sound odd given the Seahawks eventually conceded 31 points. But it was the impact the defense had on Andy Reid’s gameplan and offensive build that made this close to a Christmas miracle. The Chiefs attack was left relying on the play-extension brilliance of Patrick Mahomes: their playcalling was left looking devoid of ideas; their initial structure collapsed; their offense lost the battle to Carroll and Ken Norton Jr. Mahomes finished with his second-lowest completion percentage of the season (57.5%) and his second-fewest passing yards per attempt (6.83).Mesh <Cover 3Earlier this year, Seattle had issues playing crossing routes. It is, after all, a regular weapon of choice for offensive coordinators looking to defeat cover 3. That said, the zone technique has steadily improved throughout the season. With K.J. Wright’s coverage ability back on the field, the Seahawks played cover 3-beating concepts like mesh superbly. Wright has far more refined pass defense than Austin Calitro, who was horrendous against the San Francisco 49ers. Moreover, it was the defensive-wide level of execution that so impressed.On their first set of downs in the game, Kansas City aligned in an 11-personnel (1 running back, 1 tight end and 3 wide receivers) doubles formation designed to get Seattle in their base coverage. The pre-snap shift from Travis Kelce confirmed the coverage to be zone. The single-high safety heavily hinted at cover 3. Mesh made sense; the Seahawks executed perfectly. Hook defender Wright stayed in the vicinity of Tyreek Hill’s post route with Tre Flowers over the top of it, first subtly disrupting it and then taking away Mahomes’ first read. Boundary buzz defender Delano Hill smothered the wheel route out of the backfield. Wagner moved with Kelce’s crosser as it entered his vicinity. Wright then did the same with Chris Conley’s, who was Mahomes’ third read. Reading from Tyreek Hill, to Kelce, to Robinson, Mahomes saw nothing but converging defenders. Seattle hit their landmarks and converged perfectly. Mahomes was left improvising. He ended up scrambling right and lobbing a ludicrous deep ball narrowly incomplete. The Seahawks’ outstanding zone technique, a theme which would continue throughout the game, saw the Chiefs go three and out on their opening drive. Unthinkable. The depth of the hook droppers against crossers seem to stagger wonderfully to play the right depth and avoid rubs. Bootleg <Cover 3 RobberAgainst other doubles formations, Seattle was less vanilla in their pre-snap looks. This 2nd and 10, with the Seahawks up 7-0, provided an example of how Seattle played crossers well with 3 robber coverage.Post-snap, the Seahawks rotated Delano Hill downhill to form a second hook zone in a cover 3; a 3 weak robber. Against Kansas City’s bootleg, Delano Hill ran with the intermediate crossing route of Tyreek Hill. Meanwhile, Wagner as the other hook defender did well to dissect Tyreek Hill’s route and the flat route of tight end Demetrius Harris. More solid dissecting was conducted by buzz defender Justin Coleman; he stayed in sound position on Conley while moving with the rollout and keeping his eyes on Harris.As the backside, unblocked defensive end, Frank Clark also did well. He moved with Mahomes’ rollout, first trying to disrupt the flat release and then pressuring the passer into progressing to the checkdown throw rather than squeezing it into Tyreek Hill.Travis Kelce <Akeem KingKelce, entering the match-up, had 10 touchdowns and over 1200 receiving yards. Seattle held him to a meager 54 receiving yards and 0 touchdowns. It felt like Akeem King played far more than the 13 snaps he received last Sunday. Cris Collinsworth highlighted his play. In clear passing downs and versus obvious passing personnel, the Seahawks went into some pass-focused personnel. Rather than the “bandit” package of 3-1-7, it was more often a 4-1-6 that matched King up on Kelce.The below play had King jam and trail Kelce. Mahomes quickly moved off his tight end and chose Tyreek Hill’s out route in the spacing concept. Seattle’s boldness in playing two-man under against a trips bunch formation was rewarded. With the stunting Jarran Reed approaching, the forced tight window throw sailed on a rushed Mahomes. On 3rd and 10 the Chiefs couldn’t convert.Kelce is a baller. There’s no doubt about that. The big tight end is a physical mismatch for lots of players and has a suddenness when route running that is rare for the position. King being occasionally beat in the assignment isn’t surprising. The first snippet features capable man-to-man defense that forced a wonderful throw and catch. That’s the only way to beat this, and it’s not viable as a regular solution.The second cut-up is King overcommitting on Kelce’s pivot route, though Mahomes decided to hit the wheel of Tyreek Hill against the cover 1. Clip 1: King allowed two catches against Kelce, yet both times the coverage was excellent. The last catch of the game for Kelce was King winning the battle between the pair. Immediately after a missed grounding call, King answered on one of the most crucial third downs in the game.With just over six minutes left in the 4th quarter, Kansas City trailed by 11 and really needed to convert this 3rd and 3 at the Seattle 47. The Seahawks sent a surprise safety blitz through the a gap via Delano Hill. Facing an unblocked rusher, Mahomes had to release the ball quickly to Kelce’s hitch.The cover 1 blitz placed King into his typical one-on-one assignment against Kelce. Kelce’s hitch was supposed to be at the sticks, but King refused to allow Kelce to properly re-set the line of scrimmage. The patience in the press alignment was ideal. King’s play-strength was evidenced by his jam, which denied Kelce the separation needed. This forced Kelce to move backwards for the football. As a result, the reception was made short of the first down. King then came downhill and made a nice form tackle to drop Kelce and force the fourth down. That’s how you take away a big tight end. Clip 2: In another cover 1, King again shone his talents. Mahomes knew it was man defense pre-snap after Kelce’s motion was followed across the formation by King. The Chiefs liked the match-up for Kelce and a vertical route. Yet King stayed fantastically patient and square, stuttering but not overcommitting as Kelce faked an out route and then opening to run downfield. His over the top position was great throughout, and his strength survived through the hand fighting. The area for improvement is to locate the football at the end. RPOs <Down safety alignment and techniqueKansas City likes hitting Run Pass Option plays. They’re ‘can’t be wrong’ ways of attacking a defense. Seattle played them smartly. The entire gameplan featured patience from backside defenders that negated option plays, accounted for reverse motions and stopped the pass option in RPOs. Take these back-to-back snaps. On the first one, the Chiefs’ pre-snap shift of their running back meant that Barkevious Mingo became the backside defender rather than Delano Hill. Mingo rushed out to the flat route of Kelce. Flowers in his deep third paused thinking the ball was going to Kelce. Tyreek Hill’s slant was wide open for Mahomes, who’d read Mingo run away and Wagner play run.After a false start put Kansas City in 1st and 15 Russell Wilson Color Rush Jersey , they called a very similar concept. This time, Delano Hill stayed as the backside defender. He executed his coverage brilliantly, patiently waiting on the mesh point before playing his man coverage assignment on Kelce. He was helped by Kelce’s delayed release when trying to sell a block. Mahomes saw Delano Hill stay somewhat in the passing lane to Tyreek Hill. This resulted in the passer handing the ball off to Damien Williams. The Seahawks’ feverish playside pursuit of the wide run forced the fumble.With the down safety often aligned to the backside of the running back versus shotgun, Seattle had better coverage technique and awareness for giving Mahomes a “give” read on RPOs. Their frontside played very aggressively and was free to attack.Coverage weaknesses <StuntsDelano Hill has been capable when deployed down in the box or over a tight end. Yet his ability, or lack thereof, at two-high safety makes him a weakness to target in coverage. His eyes get drawn for too long to certain routes and he is slow to anticipate plus react to deep corner routes. Gucci Mane proclaimed that “stunting ain’t nothing to me”,, but it sure was something to the poor Chiefs o-line. It helped cover for the issues Delano Hill presented as Kansas City went pass-heavy in desperation mode and the Seahawks played more two-high defense. There’s no greater help to shaky pass defense than pressure.Delano Hill was beat by Kelce to the corner in Seattle’s usually shutdown “red 2” coverage. Thankfully for the Seahawks, the bullet-fast get-off of Frank Clark insta-pressured Mahomes, and the tackle-end exchange to the left flushed Mahomes into spinning right and away from the open Kelce. The result was an out-of-bounds heave.Seattle also got freaky by allowing Clark to play “radar style”. Before the snap, he walked around the line of scrimmage, not allowing the o-line to know where he’d rush from. His eventual long-arm surge from right end shocked left tackle Eric Fisher. Mahomes was forced into more improvisation.Pete Carroll Coach of the YearThe Chiefs game was the latest instance of the brilliance of Carroll’s defensive scheme. The innovation and adaptation in the defense combines with wholesome coverage technique. If he and Norton Jr. can continue to get the gameplans right—against the 49ers they didn’t—then this defense can hold any playoff offense within reach. The savvy utilization of various talents in coverage is a massive supporting factor for why Carroll should win Coach of the Year. This is a heck of a coaching job. The Seattle Seahawks host the Kansas City Chiefs in primetime this Sunday. The 5 Qs and 5 As is coming in late this week, so let’s just jump right to it.I sent five Qs to someone at Arrowhead Pride and in kind someone sent me back five corresponding As. That someone to respond was John Dixon and here is what he told me about KC’s defense, offense, Andy Reid, and his knowledge of Michael Dickson.Q: The Chiefs offense is number one in the NFL. Number one in points, yards, yards/attempt, TD%, DVOA, passing touchdowns. It’s hard to believe I’m going to throw a “but...” in this after scoring seven touchdowns in the last two games...BUT, the Chiefs have only scored seven touchdowns in the last two games, facing the Ravens and Chargers. Those games resulted in an OT win and a one-point loss. Kansas City does not appear to be a team capable of dominating (like they have for much of the season) when not scoring 30 points. So do you see this as merely a two-game sample size of underachieving or is the offense noticeably more vulnerable recently for any reason in particular, whether it be the release of Kareem Hunt, the injury to Sammy Watkins, teams getting a better read on Patrick Mahomes, or other?A: As so often happens, the answer is likely all of those things to one degree or another. From our perspective, though, it’s about Watkins. Without him, the offense is a normal NFL offense with a really good quarterback and two really good receivers -- in the case of the Chiefs, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. But with Watkins on the field, the offense is a three-headed monster. It’s just too difficult for defenses to account for all three of these receivers on every play. Even if they can, the Chiefs still have viable receiving options out of the backfield, too; even before Hunt’s release, Damien Williams and Spencer Ware had also made big plays in the passing game. It’s not that the Chiefs don’t have other receivers who can take Watkins’ place. They do. But Watkins is clearly on another level. Q: If KC is more beatable when scoring under 30 (as any team would be, but perhaps when you are this prolific, it’s worth further examination) then it obviously leads us to a question on the other side of the ball. The defense is 31st in yards, 28th in points, 32nd in passing yards, 32nd in yards per carry, 27th in DVOA, 32nd in rush defense DVOA, It can’t be for a total void of talent: Chris Jones, Dee Ford, Justin Houston, Kendall Fuller, and I believe I heard Orlando Scandrick was having a good season but perhaps I’m incorrect there. Where are the major issues/problem areas on defense and how much did the return of Eric Berry last week affect the plan?A: The Chiefs defense isn’t very good? You don’t say! We never would have noticed! It’s certainly true the team has given up a lot of yards and points Brandon Marshall Color Rush Jersey , and the rushing defense has been awful. The Chiefs made multiple personnel moves in the offseason to shore up the run defense, and it hasn’t worked. On paper, the addition of free agents like Anthony Hitchens and Xavier Williams -- and draft acquisitions like Derrick Nnadi and Breeland Speaks -- should have made a difference, but in the running game, they haven’t. Hitchens in particular has been a disappointment. In Bob Sutton’s scheme, he seems unable to play at the same level he did in Dallas; he seems confused and hesitant on the field. A large number of Chiefs fans believe Sutton is the problem -- that his scheme is too complicated for his players to execute... that he is unable to adjust... that the NFL has passed him by. For many fans, watching Eric Berry move players in the secondary into their proper positions during the first half of Thursday’s game against the Chargers was the last straw; it was seen as a clear indication of Sutton’s inability to coach. But when Berry was on the field, there was no doubt the defense played much better -- even beyond Berry’s personal contributions. If Berry can get to the point he can play full games, the Chiefs -- even with Bob Sutton as defensive coordinator -- could be very difficult to beat.Q: Andy Reid now has a firm reputation for inconsistency within seasons: KC started 5-0 last year, then fell to 6-6, then finished 10-6. KC started 2-2 in 2016, finished 12-4. In 2015, a 1-5 started ended with 10 straight wins. The year before that, 7-3 ended at 9-7 and out of the playoffs. In 2013, a 9-0 start ended at 11-5. The nice thing is that most of these seasons ended in playoffs but the negative side is that Reid has still only won one playoff game in that time. The Chiefs started 9-1 this year and after losing two of the last four, questions are popping up again: Will Reid fall backwards into the playoffs, and worst of all, lose the one seed and division to the Chargers? How real or valid are these concerns, in the bigger picture? Do you believe it’s a pattern or a coincidence? How worried are you about this KC team today not looking like the KC team of September and October? If the Chiefs don’t advance in the playoffs, how loud do the voices that want a change up top start to get?A: In 2013, the Chiefs schedule was backloaded; all the difficult teams were in the second half of the season. Two years later, the exact opposite was true: the difficult teams were in the first half of the season, and the easier teams were in the second half. That explains the hot and cold streaks of 2013 and 2015. As for this season, we’re as surprised as anyone. I personally predicted that the Chiefs would go 10-6 on the season -- 4-4 through the tough stretch at the beginning, and then 6-2 as Patrick Mahomes got more experience and the new players on defense started to gel. Mahomes was clearly much more NFL-ready in his first season as a starter than we realized, and the defense still hasn’t figured it out. Yet here we are at 11-3, and still in control of our destiny in the playoffs. Fans of other teams may see inconsistency. What we see is a head coach who took a 2-14 team to the playoffs not just in his first year, but in four years out of five -- and has now found the quarterback we have all wanted for decades. If the Chiefs fail in the postseason, there will be plenty of voices calling for Bob Sutton’s removal -- many have hated him for almost the entire time he has been here -- but Andy Reid is here to stay. Q: Seahawks defensive tackle Jarran Reed has 8.5 sacks and is the most exciting player Seattle has had at the position in many years. I won’t name the Seahawks DT that shall never draw comparisons from mortals, but let’s just say that Reed is explosive, talented, and arguably the DT Pete Carroll has been searching for since he arrived in 2010. Chris Jones has 14 sacks and they’ve all come in his last 10 games. I mean, 8 sacks is great, 12 sacks is fantastic, but once you start talking about 1+ sacks per game, especially from the DT position, you enter extremely rare territory. How good is Jones and how big is the concern around his injury? (For some reason P-F-R listed Jones with a shoulder injury but that does not appear to be the case anywhere else, hence why I addressed it and why is is addressed below) Related: How long do you expect Jones, Ford, and Houston to occupy the same defense?A: Chris Jones is a force of nature. Even if he was injured -- which he isn’t -- he’d be making sacks from the sidelines. He’s always been supremely gifted, but this season he’s figured it out. He came into camp with a new attitude, has responded well to coaching, and now it’s paying off. With Jones and Dee Ford, the Chiefs have what is arguably the most disruptive inside/outside pass rush duo they’ve had since Derrick Thomas and Neil Smith in the early 1990s. The Chiefs will definitely have some hard choices to make with regard to their top pass rushers in 2019 and beyond, but I think we’ll see at least one more season with Jones, Ford and Houston playing together.Q: Normally this is where I would ask you if you’ve heard of Michael Dickson. This is normal. Have you heard of Michael Dickson?A: Yes. I went to high school with him. He still owes me $20. Do you have his address?