Chiefs’ defense is outdoing its 2019 production. You know, when they won a Super Bowl
Late in the fourth quarter on Sunday, an aimless incomplete pass left the football stranded on the sideline. But only for split-second. Dressed in his winter coat after his day was all but done in a 43-16 blowout, Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu ran over and grabbed the ball, then playfully tucked it into his gut as if preparing to return it downfield.
Instincts, you know.
The moment affected nothing in a literal sense in the Chiefs’ 10th straight win against the Broncos, but it’s rather symbolic of what this defense has become. From a hold-your-breath-and-hope-for-the-best unit only a couple of years ago to a group that takes advantage of just about every last opportunity its given.
There will be some things to correct from Sunday’s victory in Denver — the Chiefs did allow 411 yards of offense — but the game turned on this defense. Once. Twice. Three times. And then four.
The Chiefs tied a season-high with four takeaways — and Daniel Sorensen returned his interception for a touchdown — and also sacked Broncos quarterback Drew Lock three times.
The defense offered Patrick Mahomes a figurate day off — not because he was anything subpar bur rather because they simply didn’t need him to great.
And the root of that stems from just two weeks ago, in a loss to the Raiders, when the defense effectively turned to Mahomes and said, “Here, you take care of it.”
“I could definitely sense it on the defensive side where they wanted to put the hammer down and do better,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “That’s great focus there. (Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) has done a nice job, as the other coaches have. You’ve got a lot of proud players there. They really (bore) down and had a couple nice games here.”
The Raiders neared 500 yards that day. They remain the only team to surpass 300 passing yards against the Chiefs.
The response? The Chiefs allowed only 17 points in Buffalo and only 16 in Denver.
Not by coincidence. To a player and coach, the Chiefs ripped their performance against the Raiders. “None of us coached very well, and none of us played very well,” Reid said. But they took something from it — a reminder of how easily it can go awry if they allow it.
“I thought the last couple weeks, we’ve been taking some steps in the right direction,” Mathieu said.
Mathieu played his part in two of the four turnovers Sunday, all of which seem worthy of individual mention. It began late in the first quarter, when rookie defensive end Tershawn Wharton poked free a football from Melvin Gordon, a ball that eventually found a home in Mathieu’s arms. On the next Broncos’ drive, Sorensen cut off Lock’s pass intended for tight end Noah Fant and returned it 50 yards for a score.
Comically, Frank Clark pounced on a loose football after Gordon flipped an errant flea-flicker over the head of Lock. And Mathieu finished it off with an interception on a pass that K.J. Hamler bobbled and tipped into the air.
The final two were more lucky than good, but the Chiefs have been more of the latter in five of the six weeks. After constantly making a point to say they can’t just simply pick up where they left off at the end of last season, they are reaching the right side of the curve more quickly than they did in 2019.
A bad outing didn’t multiply into three or four. Heck, it didn’t multiply into even two. The Chiefs rank in the top-10 in points allowed.
Using its DVOA metric, Football Outsiders says this team’s defense is actually better than last season’s, and that’s before a play was snapped Sunday.
“This is a new season. You have to build your way to championship talk and championship swagger,” Mathieu said. “These last two games that we’ve been able to put together, I do feel us tapping back into that mantra, to that attitude, to that standard.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2020 at 8:08 PM.