An All-Star-backed defense and a struggling new-look offense have guided the Carolina Chaos’ to a 2-3 start to the season.  

Even with all of the woes on offense, the Chaos' defense and goaltending have yet again been bright spots. It’s easy to look at the big names like Blaze Riorden, Jack Rowlett and Jarrod Neumann – all of whom just played in their fourth consecutive All-Star Game – and see how the defense can be successful. Still, with all that talent, the more important focus is how the group works together to create a suffocating feel against opponents.

At a micro level, throughout the past six years, Rowlett, Neumann and others have forged a deep level of chemistry on the Chaos, helping to create a defensive juggernaut. At a macro level, it all revolves around game planning. 

A majority of the credit goes to Riorden because he allows the defense to play differently from most teams. 

“It’s a total luxury that having the best goalie in the world allows you to play a completely different style of defense,” second-year defender Will Bowen said.

Without diving too deep into X’s and O’s, there’s a simple way to break down how the Chaos like to scheme for success. It starts with the four-time Oren Lyons Goaltender of the Year and funnels from him accordingly.

“When we game plan for a given week, we definitely are considering Blaze and how he likes to see things, because candidly, he's going to steal goals no matter what,” Bowen explained. “But if we can just continue to funnel and play to his advantage, not only does it help our defense because we have that confidence that we can avoid wasting steps, avoid wasting energy and play a much more calculated style, but it also just allows him to make sure that everything he's seen, he's prepared for, and he's going to gobble it up.”

After playing into Riorden’s strengths, the focus then shifts to the close defense. Once again, the team schemes around strengths.

“Our goal is to put our guys in the best position to succeed and take away [opposing teams’] best threats, and then we play around from there,” Bowen explained. 

Rowlett is comfortable guarding any player in the world regardless of their handedness, and Neumann usually takes on lefties. Bowen is versatile and accepts any role that the team needs him to play, and the rest of the defense (long-stick midfielder and short-stick defensive midfielders) plays to its strengths based on opposing personnel.  

That cohesiveness fuels a unit that’s allowed a league-best 11.2 scores against per game this season.  

The known moniker “defense wins championships” is a big reason why the Chaos won a title in 2021. But the question now is: How far can the unit carry this team in 2024?

My best guess is the quarterfinals (first round of the playoffs). If the offense finds its stride, the team can make a deep run for a second championship, but that simply has not happened thus far.

This year, stingy defense has kept the Chaos in games and given the team a chance to win some of those contests, but the struggling offense has been the Achilles heel. 

Holding the reigning champion Utah Archers to nine goals should’ve resulted in a win, but the offense couldn’t put the ball in the net, scoring a meager seven goals. The same story was evident when the defense held the Philadelphia Waterdogs to 10 goals and the Chaos offense only scored an abysmal six. 

Carolina’s 10.6 scores per game ranks last in the PLL at the season’s halfway point. 

Under the new playoff format, the top team in each conference earns a bye to the semifinals, and the next four best teams regardless of the conference make the playoffs. 

Three of the five remaining Chaos games are against the three Western Conference opponents, with the other two being this Friday’s matchup against the Maryland Whipsnakes and a battle with the Boston Cannons to close out the year. 

A two-win team has made the playoffs in each of the past two seasons, but hoping the Waterdogs won’t eclipse their current one-win mark and assuming the California Redwoods - who still have their Homecoming Weekend and six games to play - won’t reach more than two wins isn’t a great formula for the second half of the season. 

Philadelphia and California will put pressure on the Chaos to find ways to win. Reaching four or five wins should be the goal for every team if they want to make the playoffs safely, which will make the remaining five games for Carolina feel almost like playoff games because of their importance. 

The defense is the strength of the Chaos team because of the All-Star talent it possesses, but the struggling offense will remain the kryptonite and prevent the Chaos from getting back in the win column until it can provide goals.

A fully functioning Chaos team will continue to allow 11 or fewer goals a game and will score north of that number each week. Until the Chaos can reach this form, they’ll remain mired in mediocrity.