After a successful opening week versus the Arizona Cardinals, the Kansas City Chiefs will host the Los Angeles Chargers in their home opener on “Thursday Night Football.”
The Chargers are also coming off a Week 1 victory, beating the Las Vegas Raiders 24-19. Check out our offseason report about the Chargers, where you’ll find information about their offseason moves and key players.
Let’s dive into this matchup and see what it will take for Kansas City to move to 2-0.
Chiefs' defense vs. Chargers' offense
Brandon Staley is in his second year as the Chargers’ head coach. When he was hired in 2021 he brought Joe Lombardi in to be his offensive coordinator. Staples of Lombardi’s offense are various types of tight formations, where the receivers and tight ends line up tightly together and stay inside the numbers on the field.
Tight formations help the running game by adding extra gaps for backs to run through. Lombardi uses a lot of pre-snap motion which opens up running lanes since defenses have to respect the threat of attacking the outside of the field. The Chargers run a lot of outside-zone running plays, which attack the edge of the defensive line with multiple offensive linemen kicking out to block ahead of the running back.
In the passing game, tight formations enable the offense to attack the edges of the field. A receiver on each side of the formation will run crossing (or drag) routes, forcing defenders to cover the middle of the field. If the receivers beat their man or find a soft spot in zone coverage, it’s an easy throw for quarterback Justin Herbert and usually a big gain.
If the receivers are covered well, there will be plenty of space to work with on the edge of the field. The Chargers exploit this very well, especially with running back Austin Ekeler. He is one of the best pass-catching backs in the NFL and does a great job of finding open space on the boundary for Herbert to easily check down to him.
After the Chargers have continuously hit the defense underneath, they’ll take their shot downfield out of formations that feature three or four receivers. With two receivers crossing underneath and a running back going out into the flat, Lombardi will send a receiver vertical (usually Mike Williams, his best deep threat) to try for a big play.
The Chiefs’ defense will have its work cut out for it against this L.A. offense. It will have to be agile and move well horizontally while also not forgetting about a possible deep ball down the field. One advantage it will have is that defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo runs mostly zone coverages.
This is helpful because the Chargers’ philosophies that we just covered are best used against man coverage. If Spagnuolo spreads his defensive backs and linebackers out to cover as much space horizontally as possible, it could make for a lot of incompletions and small gains.
Another way the Chiefs’ defense can help itself is to get pressure with just its four down linemen. If the Chiefs can get pressure while dropping seven defenders it will give them a numbers advantage. Forcing Herbert to get rid of the ball before his receivers’ routes are developed could lead to turnovers.
Chiefs' offense vs. Chargers' defense
Staley is a disciple of longtime defensive coordinator and former head coach Vic Fangio. Staley hired Renaldo Hill as his defensive coordinator last season, who also worked with Fangio. Together they run a base 3-4 defense similar to Fangio’s. The three large down linemen try to eat up as much space and get as good of a push as possible and let the linebackers make the plays.
The Chargers defense is great at disguising. It rarely actually does what it shows pre-snap. Staley wants to dictate where the ball goes. He will present a light box, hoping that the offensive will audible into a run, only to bring pressure from defenders who appeared that they were going to drop in coverage.
Conversely, there will be times when Staley presents a heavy box but drops seven or eight defenders into coverage. Staley is an innovator when it comes to coverages. During his time as defensive coordinator with the Los Angeles Rams, he frequently played Cover 8, a hybrid coverage where the defense drops eight defenders. He’d play Cover 2 to the strong side and Cover 4 to the weak side.
While Cover 8 isn’t anything new, Staley utilized it much more often than other coordinators. It caught on around the league, and infamously gave the Chiefs’ offense a lot of trouble last season. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes will need to be patient and not force the ball to a particular area, something that he did a great job of last week.
The Chiefs’ new philosophy of spreading the ball around to their revamped group of pass catchers should pay dividends in this game. The offensive line will need to do its part against a very good Chargers front seven that racked up six sacks last week. Giving Mahomes time to go through his progressions against multiple defensive backs in the secondary will be crucial.
Coach Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy can help Mahomes out by dialing up plays that get the ball out of his hands quickly. Slants, drags, hitch and flat routes would be good options. Then there’s the screen game, which we all know is Reid’s specialty. Pre-snap motion, which the Chiefs do a lot of, is another helpful tool to force defenders out of position.
The Chiefs should have opportunities to run the ball if the Chargers are frequently dropping defenders. L.A. surrendered the third-most rushing yards in the NFL last season and allowed 6.4 yards per carry to the Raiders last week.
