MVN - Most Valuable Network

Chiefs Must Stop… Ryan Grant?

Obviously, the Colts-Patriots matchup is the end-all be-all of NFL matchups this week.  But as my colleague at Packers-MVN notes, Chiefs-Packers is no slouch of a game either.  Both teams are scrapping to stay atop of their divisions, so a win today has large implications for either team.

Naturally, such a big game means the focus will be on big names, and you have them here.  Brett Favre, of course.  Tony Gonzalez.  Donald Driver.  Larry Johnson.  But the key players in this game will be three virtual unknowns:  Ryan Grant, Jarrad Page, and Bernard Pollard.

Let’s get to the broad point first- neither team is likely to score 30 points.  This game should be a hard-fought, defensive battle.  Both defenses have played exceptionally well this season, with the Chiefs 11th and the Packers 14th in the NFL in total yards, and the Chiefs 6th and the Packers 11th in points allowed.  Both defenses give up the big play time to time, but they do a good job of making sure those big plays don’t balloon into major defensive breakdowns.

The Packers know what the Chiefs will do, that is, focus on letting Larry Johnson loose, and look in the middle of the field for Tony Gonzalez and Dwayne Bowe.  But the Chiefs don’t know yet what the Packers will do on offense.  Ryan Grant had what many consider a breakout game last week, but that was also against the worst rushing defense in the league.  So do the Packers pull out the Herm Edwards-Mike Solari playbook and try to ram Grant down the Chiefs’ throat?  Or do they just give that impression, essentially using him as a decoy?

Either way, the Chiefs’ talented, but still raw safeties, Page and Pollard, must play a smart game.  They need to recognize the play quickly, because if they are fooled, Favre will burn them, as he did against the Broncos.  Grant is not a home run hitter- only one of his runs was for 10 yards or more, a 24-yard scamper- so Page and Pollard need to trust their teammates up front to keep Grant to 3 to 5-yard gains.  Mostly, Page and Pollard need to keep their eyes on the WRs to make sure they are not trying to sneak deep.

The first quarter could make or break this game.  If Ryan Grant consistently gains five yards or more, then the Chiefs will be in trouble.  If Page and Pollard are able to stay back and limit Favre’s deep passes, then the Chiefs will be in position to win a very important game.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 4th, 2007 at 9:27 am and is filed under Preview. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.