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Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
Good post - welcome.
Few things to think about from a Chiefs perspective in your breakdown:
It’s kind of impossible to draw much from the Chiefs matchups against the Vikings and Packers. KC played those games without Mahomes. The fact they managed to beat the Vikings without him kind of saved the season. The Packers game went down to the wire.
(Side note directed at Niners trolls talking about how good the NFC was... Kansas City best one of your playoff contestants with a guy who literally was coaching HS this time last year and nearly beat your No. 2 seed with that same guy - save for a few god-level, vintage Rodgers plays).
Back to the real conversation.
I wouldn’t place too much stock in what the Colts did as a blueprint for stopping KC’s offense. That was the most “injured” the offense has been all year (no Hill or Watkins, Mahomes had a bad ankle that was made worse when sub LT Cam Erving stepped on it, no starting LT).
And the Chiefs run D is especially different from that game. The addition of Mike Pennel at DT and Teresa Suggs at RE gives them a lot more pop up front vs. the run. Reggie Ragland has changed up their LB mix quite a bit (Darron Lee was atrocious against the run and an awful tackler; believe Hitchens also got hurt mid-game).
The Colts and Texans games were the “belly of the whale” moments for this team and the run defense. They are not representative of what KC is now.
The last Raiders game is probably the best thing to look at if you want to get a feel for how KC is playing against the run now. Jacobs had one big run (reason for 49ers optimism) but otherwise averaged 4.3 YPC. And even in that game, KC has yet to add Suggs.
When he and Clark are on the field together, the edge gets set really well on both sides of the line.
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To save alot of time for our new 49er friends my recommendation is ignore anything before Week 15 or Week 16. Heck just look at what we done in the playoffs because this is the healthiest this team has been except for Week 1, Quarter 1.