Although the Kansas City Chiefs are off to a 3-0 start, fans have found the last two defensive performances stressful.
After a dominant Week 1 showing against the Denver Broncos, the Indianapolis Colts took the unit to overtime and nearly won after advancing to the Kansas City 17-yard line in the extra period. In Week 3, the lowly Miami Dolphins posted their highest yardage total (and their lowest-scoring performance) of the season against Kansas City’s defense.
Per Next Gen Stats, the Chiefs are actually
fourth in expected points added (EPA) per defensive play at -0.16. Still, the unit is not passing the eye test for many observers, including their leader.
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo explained before Thursday’s practice that everyone is well aware of the recent deficiencies.
“By the time Tuesday rolls around when I first see them, they’re chewed out,” remarked the coach. “I’ve already chewed myself out for a whole day. So, we like to have constructive criticism. The good thing about this group is they’re all pretty accountable. Even if I’m standing in there and pointing something out, I see a lot of heads shaking, ‘Yeah, you’re right,’ so that part I don’t even worry about.”
Spagnuolo shares frustrations that opponents seem to get out of trouble in third-down situations that should favor the defense. He is happy with how his squad has come through multiple times in key fourth-down moments.
“You look at third down percentage, and it looks crappy,” he acknowledged, “but I kind of dissect the whole thing. That’s a run play I think [Miami] had — there was one third and 10 there that they had a really good design route concept that beat what we had out there. So, I’m going to give them that, but all of a sudden, if you take three [plays] out of there, it’s a whole different ballgame. What was good was when we were able to stop them and get it to fourth down. We had the three fourth-down stops that were key. Now, we don’t want to always be banking on that because those are pretty difficult. But would I like to be better in third down? Yeah, and we’ll dissect it and hopefully come up with something a little bit better this week.”
The team’s pass rush has underwhelmed, going two weeks without a sack and giving teams extra time to get out of difficult situations. While the team’s pass rushers have knocked down some key passes, they aren’t getting to the quarterback quickly enough.
“I think we’d all like to see it better on first and second down,” said Spagnuolo. “That’s where some of those plays got long. We’ve got to do better on the back end with those explosive passes, but when the down gets extended, guys have a tendency to kind of get open at some point. So, first and second down is one thing that we’ve looked at. I was happy that we got our hands up and knocked some balls down. That play [defensive tackle Chris Jones] made with [defensive end George Karlaftis] was really important.
“I thought we could have had five turnovers. I thought we had three missed opportunities. We’ve got to get those…Third down was something we’d like to get better at. Pass rush on first and second down. We’ve talked about all those things.”
Sunday’s road matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders will show whether those discussions are proving fruitful. Spagnuolo does not expect an easy day against veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins. The Raiders are currently second in the league with 0.56 EPA per third-down pass play.
“Big challenge,” Spagnuolo said of Cousins. “I’ve been down this road before. Kirk’s one of these quarterbacks that I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for. He’s been doing it for a long time. I think he’s a quality guy. Every time I see him, I tell him how much I respect his character. That part is great, but on the football field, he gets the ball out so quick that he makes it really difficult. I think the knocking down of passes will be really important. The sticky coverage and making him throw it into tight windows will be really big. When we do that, we need a couple of knockdowns by a corner or a safety to get him in a longer down the distance or get us off the field. We’ll have to mix it up, but I think you’ve got to be a little bit careful with a guy that’s as smart as Kirk is.”
