Kansas City Chiefs defense proves itself in win over Vikings
After another strong performance against the Vikings, the Kansas City Chiefs defense has proven they are finally ready for a Super Bowl run.
The Kansas City Chiefs pulled off a much needed win on Sunday when they beat the Minnesota Vikings 26-23. Coming out of this game it would be easy to focus on the clutch field goals by Harrison Butker or the fact that the Chiefs pulled out a win against one of the best teams in the NFC while starting their back up quarterback, Matt Moore.
With many predicting the return of MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes next week, it’s easy to focus on the offense. However, the continued improvement of the Kansas City Chiefs defense is by far the biggest story coming out of this game.
The Chiefs had one of the most explosive offenses in the history of the NFL last season. While injuries have held them back so far this season, there is continued belief that if/when this offense gets healthy, they will once again be one of the elite units in all the NFL.
Even with all the injuries they’ve had on offense, they are still averaging 28 points per game and just over 390 yards of total offense. Most teams would kill for that kind of offensive production, but the Chiefs feel like they are just scratching the surface of what they could be this season.
Then there is the defense. The Chiefs basically did a complete defensive overhaul this past offseason as they brought in an entire new defensive staff, led by new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. Spagnuolo brought a new defensive scheme with him that promised more adjustments and a more creative blitzing attack.
Along with the coaching and scheme change the Chiefs also overhauled their personnel. They cut ties with big names like Eric Berry, Justin Houston, and Dee Ford and brought in guys like Tyrann Mathieu and Frank Clark. The general belief was that if this new defense could come together by the end of the year and just be an average defense (compared to bottom of the league last season), they would have a real shot at winning a Super Bowl.
While most fans understood that the defense might need time to come together with so many new pieces, the initial results were not as encouraging as many had hoped. After six games and two consecutive home losses to the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans, many fans were concerned that the defensive improvement just wasn’t there. The run defense in particular was abysmal and looked poised to be the worst in all the NFL.
However, a prime time game against the Denver Broncos proved to be a turning point. The Chiefs defense came out with a new intensity that night and only seemed to intensify more after their star quarterback went out with a knee injury. While beating up on the Donkeys was fun, many believed that upcoming games against the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings would once again expose the new defense. Except that’s not what happened.
Despite losing to Aaron Rodgers and the Packers 31-24, the general response was that the defense played well. Rodgers made a couple of ridiculous throws and Andy Reid made the questionable call to punt late in the game and that was the difference. Then on Sunday the Chiefs really put the clamps on Kirk Cousins, Dalvin Cook, and a Vikings offense that had arguably been the best in the NFL in the month of October.
This revitalized defense appears to be exactly what most Chiefs fans were hoping for at the start of the season and there is real reason to believe that this defense can be good enough to win it all if the offense does get back to full health.
To prove this point I thought it would be interesting to look at the defensive numbers compared to last season. While we will look at the numbers for the past three games, let’s start by looking at where the defensive numbers for this entire season stack up next to last year’s unit.