The Kansas City Chiefs are well aware of the challenge in front of them this week. Their Week 12 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts begins — and largely depends — on finding a way to slow down the NFL’s
most productive offensive player: running back Jonathan Taylor. He is the foundation of the Colts’ offense, and everything Kansas City does defensively on Sunday will revolve around limiting his impact.
According to defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, that objective takes precedence over everything else.
“When these elite running backs keep popping up, the focus is going to be on them first,” he said before Thursday’s practice. “I just don’t believe you can go into a game and not say that that’s the primary goal.”
Taylor’s production leaves little room for debate. Through 10 games, he has recorded 1,139 rushing yards on 189 carries — averaging 6.0 yards per attempt — with a league-leading 15 rushing touchdowns. He ranks second in runs of 20 yards or more (8), first in runs of 40 yards or more (4), and leads the NFL with 58 rushes that have gone for first downs.
Before Indianapolis’ Week 11 bye, Taylor delivered his most dominant performance of the season — a 244-yard outing against the Atlanta Falcons punctuated by an 83-yard touchdown run. Adding in three receptions for 42 yards, Taylor finished the day with 286 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns — a performance that underscored exactly why he has been so difficult to contain this year.
“He’s (Jonathan Taylor) as good a back as there is,” said the Chiefs’ defensive line coach Joe Cullen. “He’s a really unique back. Sometimes some big backs get downhill fast and have one cut — and that’s kind of what they do. He can ‘jump cut,’ as you say. He can get from point A to point B as fast as anyone in the league. He can make you miss; he can run you over, and he has home-run speed. He has breakaway speed.”
Kansas City’s MIKE Linebacker Nick Bolton will be one of Kansas City’s key players in the effort to slow down the superstar running back.
“Obviously, this year he looks fresh — [and] he looks rejuvenated,” he noted. “He’s running the ball very well, doing a lot of different things for them.
“Obviously, scheme-wise, some things are similar [and] some things are different [this year]. They have a lot of key guys that are the same. They find different ways to use those guys and get them out in space — and obviously get the ball to No. 28 whenever they get the chance to.”
For Kansas City, success will begin with controlling Taylor on early downs, forcing the Colts to be more one-dimensional. While the Chiefs have shown stretches of strong run defense this year, Taylor presents a more complete challenge — a back who is physical enough to play through contact but has the long speed to turn any run into an explosive play.
Against a running back performing at this level, the margin for error is slim — and the Chiefs know they have to be at their best if they want to win on Sunday.
“When our guys as a unit — as a group — put their mind to playing good run defense, I believe we can do that,” declared Spagnuolo. “[Failures come] when we get out of whack a little bit, see something that’s not there or take a chance. So hopefully, we play good solid group unit run defense. We’re going to need to do that again.”
