— The entire football-watching world knows about the Baltimore defense that will play against the Chiefs on Sunday in a first-round playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium. The Ravens are big and physical, tough against the run and feature four Pro Bowlers, including fiery linebacker Ray Lewis.
The defensive Chiefs are still a mystery, even in their own locker room. Several defensive players, asked the identity of their unit, had different answers.
The Chiefs have no defensive Pro Bowl players. They are in the middle of the league in most significant defensive categories. "Their defense is more experienced and they're more known," linebacker Derrick Johnson said. "But we have a tough defense, too. We're all blue-collar guys. We earn ours the hard way."
The Chiefs have had some shining defensive moments this season but don't always play it well, as they proved in last week's loss to the Raiders. They've rushed the quarterback well at times. They've stopped the run at times.
But the Chiefs are still trying to find a defensive identity, still trying to put it all together.
"We bend but we don't break," Johnson said. "This is a defense when teams get close to the red zone, we tighten up even more. We're not perfect but we're a tough defense."
A number of Chiefs defenders are having good seasons. Linebacker Tamba Hali, who led the AFC with 14½ sacks, Johnson and cornerback Brandon Flowers played well enough to deserve Pro Bowl consideration. End Wallace Gilberry had seven sacks. Glenn Dorsey started to blossom.
"We're a play-making defense," Flowers said. "You don't know who's going to make the play. It's not just Tamba Hali getting sacks but it's Wallace Gilberry getting sacks or Glenn Dorsey getting sacks. When they throw the ball, Brandon Carr is making plays on the ball. Eric Berry, if he touches it, he's going to the end zone. Kendrick Lewis had a couple picks. I would love for them to throw my way so I can make a play on the ball."
Flowers is right on that count. The Chiefs for years have waited unsuccessfully for a defensive player to make a big play at the right time and now they have any of several candidates at a game's crucial juncture.
But that hasn't made for a consistently strong defense. They would prefer to have a more definitive calling card heading into the season's most important time, but are still searching.
"How we play this week will determine how I feel because I know we did some real good things and our number one focus each and every week will be stopping the run," coach Todd Haley said. "We've been real good in that area some weeks against some good teams and making good teams one dimensional, but other times we haven't been good enough against the run.
"It's a work in progress. It really is. It's about guys just continuing to work on the technique and continuing to play that technique in all situations and understanding our philosophy of playing defense and playing the run first. We've had some good reviews and some not so good reviews but we will be tested this week. Baltimore's running attack is good and has been getting really good here of late. Their average has continued to go up as the year's gone on and I would expect this to be our biggest test to date."
Oakland tested the Chiefs last week and they failed dramatically. The Raiders ran 37 times and rushed for 209 yards, a season-high against the Chiefs.
It will be another dismal day for the Chiefs if the Ravens put up similar numbers. That's why Haley is hoping for a quick turnaround.
"I think we have done what we had to do, which is continue to make progress," Haley said. "We've had players continue to develop at various positions at various levels of depth. That's what had to happen for us to continue to get better as a team."
To reach Adam Teicher, call 816-234-4875 or send e-mail to ateicher@kcstar.com