Takeaways from Kansas City Chiefs’ Week 13 loss vs. Cincinnati Bengals

The Chiefs’ defensive line didn’t meet the standard in Week 13. They notched a single quarterback hit and their first sack came in the 57th minute of the game. That’s all well and good if you’re playing against the top pass-blocking unit in the league, but they weren’t. They were playing a Bengals team that heading into Week 13 had given up the third-most sacks in the NFL season (33).

The Bengals O-Line is playing better as of late, allowing just four sacks in its three games leading up to Week 13. Still, it begs the question — what happened to the Chiefs’ pass rush? This is a group that hasn’t recorded fewer than three sacks in a game since Week 6. Taylor Stallworth had a sack wiped away by penalty. Frank Clark played through sickness. There are reasons that the team didn’t get much pressure on Joe Burrow, but they need to perform better against a team that has struggled to keep their quarterback upright.

There’s also something to be said about the struggles in the ground game, but I think that’s why you saw Kansas City add Brandon Williams to the practice squad. I suspect he’ll be a call-up sooner rather than later to help reinforce that interior defensive line.