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The Chiefs de-fanged the Niners defense to the tune of 44 points. They did it through classic martial arts mantras.
In many martial arts including Muay Thai grappling, a common way of gaining an advantage on your opponent is to use their aggression against them. Let them overexert their energy, then redirect their energy, throwing them to the ground.
In the fictional anime Kengan Ashura, one of the martial arts forms main character Tokita Ohma uses a “Redirection Kata” uses minimal motion to manipulate the flow of power, and redirect the opponents attacks against them.
The Kansas City Chiefs might not be martial arts masters, but you could convince me on head coach Andy Reid. The Chiefs throttled the San Francisco 49ers and their top ranked defense to the tune of 44 points on Sunday, and a large reason why is because they used the Niners aggression against them, mainly targeting Nick Bosa.
The Niners defense is so good because in an era of reacting to the stimuli that is an offense, they are the aggressors, forcing the issue to the tune of allowing just under 295 yards per game and being one of the best defenses in Expected Points Added per play (EPA/play). The defensive line is the main catalyst behind the aggression. Defensive Coordinator Demeco Ryans plays his defensive ends in a “Wide 9” technique, lining up on the outside shoulder of the tight end, even if there is no tight end attached to the line of scrimmage. This gives the ends a larger runway to build up speed to tear off the edge and cause havoc. Bosa is one of the best defenders at simply causing havoc, leading the NFL in pressure rate at 20% (min. 100 pass rushing reps, via Sports Info Solutions). The Chiefs had the task of trying to neutralize Bosa in order to win.
They did that and more, holding Bosa to just one sack and one QB hit. They did this in multiple ways, keeping Bosa’s head spinning.
One of the first things they did to slow down Bosa was use sprintouts away from him. This moves the QB and the pocket, and the backside end normally gets hit with a hinge block, which is when the offensive linemen seals off the backside instead of just not blocking him. This forces Bosa to run not only around an OL, but all the way to the other side of the field, giving QB Patrick Mahomes enough time to make the throw.
On the first Mecole Hardman touchdown, the Chiefs leave Bosa unblocked and use his aggression against him. When coaches are faced with a dominant EDGE defender like Bosa, they’ll read him instead of just avoiding running at him, forcing him to be wrong. Look at the hesitation by Bosa as Hardman runs with the ball.
On the touchdown run for Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Bosa is lined up in the wide 9 alignment, but instead of just trying to straight up block him, they let him run himself too far up the field and CEH runs right where he left, almost untouched as he enters the end zone. This is peak matador-bull dynamics right here.
I think an interesting part of what they did to frustrate Bosa was in traditional dropback settings. Bosa rarely had a one on one opportunity, often seeing RBs like Jerick McKinnon motioning from the backfield to “chip” Bosa before running a route.
Bosa was seeing this multiple times, but when a critical third and long situation came up, the Chiefs pulled the chair out from under him, running a screen for McKinnon who motioned up as if he were chip blocking again.
The Niners defense strikes with the strength of a raging fire, but on Sunday the Chiefs were as swift as a coursing river and had the force of a great typhoon.
And as we all know, water beats fire.
