Chiefs vs. Patriots: Spencer Ware, Tanoh Kpassagnon among overlooked angles

The missing cornerbacks

Here’s what’s incredible and perhaps the most important overlooked point of the week: the Chiefs play thin at cornerback already as it is. The unit that was supposed to be the neediest on the defense this season is often going with a handful of players or less due to injuries, yet this crop of cornerbacks assembled by the Chiefs has performed incredibly.

On Sunday, the team was stretched even more and the veterans responded wonderfully. Rashad Fenton and Morris Claiborne were both out due to injury, but Kendall Fuller, Bashaud Breeland, and Charvarius Ward more than held down the fort. While the Chiefs had penalty issues at various points, and Fuller certainly got away with a blatant PI call late in the game, but the Chiefs corners once again enjoyed a nice night against the New England Patriots and they did so without two of the five on the roster. Amazing.

Brendan Daly

More should be made of the coaching addition of Brendan Daly this offseason. When the Kansas City Chiefs hired an entire new coaching staff for the defensive side of the ball, Steve Spagnuolo imported some new faces at each level of the defense. While we could also talk about Matt House and Sam Madison, it’s Brendan Daly who has us so impressed after Week 14.

For Daly, playing the Patriots was a homecoming in Foxborough given that he spent the previous five seasons coaching the defensive line for the Pats. Daly was brought over to do the same in Kansas City this year, and the results have been wonderful under his watch. Frank Clark is becoming a game-changing force. Chris Jones is as dominant as ever. Khalen Saunders looks like a quick learner, and we’ve already discussed Kpassagnon’s growth. Derrick Nnadi has taken a significant step as well.

Basically Tom Brady was on his heels for the entire game and so much of that was due to the front line being able to generate so much pressure. Daly has been an excellent coaching addition so far. It will be interesting to see if the Chiefs reward him with more responsibility down the road.