The Kansas City Chiefs had a fantastic opening to the season. Their 31-10 victory over the reigning AFC West champion Denver Broncos made a bold statement that the Chiefs may be back after a down year last season. While Kenneth Walker's big night may have grabbed more of the headlines, KC's young defense was equally impressive in how it played. Now that same defense gets to test itself against one of the league's premier running backs: Indianapolis Colts RB Jonathan Taylor.
Against the Broncos, the Chiefs were able to rattle quarterback Bo Nix and shut down the Broncos' passing game. Surprisingly, though, the Broncos never really committed to trying to get the running game going. Despite Nix's issues, they handed the ball off to a running back just 11 times against the Chiefs. Those 11 carries went for 54 yards. That's a 4.9 yards-per-carry average. While that isn't elite, it also isn't terrible, and KC shouldn't expect the Colts to abandon the run as quickly as Denver did.
It's easy to blame the lack of carries on the fact that the Chiefs had a big lead, but it was only 14-7 at halftime. For comparison, the Colts also got beat handily by the Baltimore Ravens last week, but continued to give Jonathan Taylor carries. The Colts lost 41-23, but were already down 31-13 at halftime. The Colts still gave Taylor 19 carries for 98 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Jonathan Taylor presents a much different test for the Chiefs
With how Kansas City's pass rush and young secondary looked in Week 1, it is doubtful that the Colts' game plan for this game will be to let Daniel Jones drop back and throw the ball 40 times while ignoring their most talented offensive weapon. The Colts' offense is built around Taylor, and he will be the primary focus of their offensive game plan. That will be a real test for KC's defense.
Taylor rushed for over 1,500 yards last season with an eye-popping 18 rushing touchdowns. He also hauled in a career-high 46 receptions. Last season wasn't an outlier either. In Taylor's four seasons in which he was healthy and played at least 14 games, he has averaged about 1,500 yards rushing. He's established himself as one of the premier backs in all of the NFL.
Kansas City has already shown it can slow down Taylor
Steve Spagnuolo and the Chiefs' defense obviously know this and will make stopping Taylor a priority. The question is whether they will be able to actually do it. There is reason to believe that they can. Last season, despite all of KC's issues, their run defense was actually pretty solid. They allowed the ninth-fewest rushing yards per game. That usually isn't the case for teams with losing records because teams are often running the ball late to eat up the clock. However, the total rushing yards allowed weren't the only positive. KC was also ninth-best in rushing yards per carry allowed at 4.0.
Last season's solid performance against the run included a very strong showing against Taylor as well. In KC's 23-20 overtime win over the Colts, the Chiefs held Taylor to 16 carries for 58 yards (3.6 yards per carry) and no touchdowns. If they can repeat that performance against Taylor on Sunday, then it is highly likely that the Chiefs will be able to pull off another win.
Chiefs' LB depth could be tested against the run
The addition of Khyiris Tonga in the middle should make the Chiefs' run defense that much more stout in the middle of their defense. However, they did lose physical linebacker Leo Chenal in free agency. To make matters worse, linebacker Cooper McDonald was injured in Week 1 and put on IR this week. McDonald was the most physical of KC's replacement options for Chenal. While Jack Cochrane has more playing experience, it hasn't been positive playing experience, and Jeffrey Bassa, while more athletic, is better in coverage and going sideline to sideline than plugging run holes.
Most outlets have the over/under line for Taylor's rushing yards in the 85-90-yard range. If KC can cause him to go under that mark, you have to like KC's odds of coming out on top. It won't be easy, but the Chiefs' defense looked up to the challenge in Week 1 against the Broncos. Here's to hoping that is the case again on Sunday night against Taylor and the Colts.
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