Chiefs Defense Looking Great, Offense Struggling
The Chiefs defense looks like they are going to be a real problem for NFL offenses.
The Chiefs kicked off the season against a Detroit Lions team that was a top-scoring offense in 2022 and scored 31 against the Seahawks in week 2. They followed it up with a game against the Jaguars who looked like they could be a top-scoring offense after week one putting up 31 points against the Colts. This is looking like it could be the first time Mahomes could have a good defense in his NFL career.
Kansas City sure tried to give the game away on the offensive side of the ball. Three turnovers including another Mahomes interception helped the Jaguars stay in the game early on. Add on to that the Chiefs ended the day with 12 penalties for 94 yards and the Chiefs in most seasons would have lost the game. In fact, they may actually have been blown out in most seasons considering their defense under Spagnoulo has started slow.
Chiefs Secondary
If you read my article about matchups one of the biggest for me defensively was slowing down Calvin Ridley, Christian Kirk, and Zay Jones. While Christian Kirk had himself a day against the Chiefs catching 11 passes on 14 targets for 110 yards, the Chiefs’ defense held Ridley and Jones in check. Calvin Ridley and Zay Jones combined for 2 receptions on 14 targets for 32 yards. Jones and Ridley combined for 156 yards and 2 TD’s on only 4 more targets against the Colts.
The Chiefs’ secondary had 4 separate plays against the Jaguars’ wide receivers where they forced incompletions using the out-of-bounds line in the back of the endzone. Heads-up play in the secondary gave the defense stops that gave the team a chance to win on a day where they probably should have lost.