Why the Chiefs are tuning out the odds and not overlooking the winless New York Jets
The Chiefs’ mantra going into Week 7 was about not getting complacent against the Denver Broncos, a team they have now defeated 10 straight times following a 43-16 win last weekend.
The Chiefs will need a repeat of that approach against the New York Jets, a team sitting on a 0-7 record, at Arrowhead Stadium Sunday.
“It will be the same message,” Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said Thursday. “To me, this is the player and coach — I’m talking about all the guys in the unit and defensive room — to me, this is the most challenging kind of challenge.
“Look, it’s easy. We all know we’re playing in big games and playoff games, etc., everybody knows those. The emotions are there. You don’t even have to worry about that. It’s just matching the focus with the emotions. Now, it’s getting both the focus and the emotions where they need to be. I think our group handles that really well.”
The Chiefs, who would improve to 7-1 with a win Sunday, need that focus to be laser-sharp to not overlook what appears to be a greatly overmatched Jets team.
New York enters the matchup ranked at or near the bottom of numerous statistical categories, including league lows in scoring (12.1 points per game), total yards per game (264.3), third-down percentage (29.8) and red-zone touchdown percentage (25).
Those numbers don’t match up well against a Chiefs defense that has held opponents to 20 points or less in six of seven games this season. The Chiefs’ 13 takeaways rank second in the league, and Kansas City boasts a plus-8 turnover differential with just five giveaways entering Week 8.
Oddsmakers certainly aren’t giving the Jets much of a chance. The line was a head-turning 19.5 in the Chiefs’ favor as of Thursday.
Yet what should happen sometimes doesn’t, and the Chiefs need only look at their own history to remember that David can occasionally step up and smite Goliath.
In Week 15 of the 2011 season, a then-mediocre Chiefs team played host to the 13-0 Green Bay Packers. Not many gave the Chiefs a chance that day under then-interim head coach Romeo Crennel, who took over when Todd Haley was fired following a loss to the Jets in Week 14.
Green Bay was heavily favored, but the Chiefs pulled off the biggest upset in the league that season with a 19-14 victory at Arrowhead Stadium.
Current Chiefs coach Andy Reid has been around the block a few times, and he knows that numbers and odds don’t matter when it comes to actually playing the game.
Perhaps that’s why he delivered a message of respect for this week’s opponent.
“It’s never as good as you think and never as bad as you think,” Reid said. “Whether it’s driven by the gambling or whether it’s driven by the media, whatever it’s driven by that presents those numbers — I don’t pay attention to them, first, but you mentioned them to me — I go off of what I see on tape.
“I go off of that every week, someone gets picked off that was one of these ‘favorites’ or whatever. So you go back and you focus on your agenda. And you study the opponent, you respect the opponent, and then you get yourself right to make yourself get better every week.”
Under Reid, the Chiefs are widely regarded as one of the NFL’s best-coached teams, so it would be surprising if they’re caught flat-footed Sunday .... no matter how much they’re favored by.
When they talk about taking this season one game at a time, they mean it.
“These are good football players and good coaches,” Redi said of the competition around the league, including with the Jets. “The best in the world as you look at it, so you don’t lose focus on that.”
Spagnuolo agreed.
“All we’ve ever focused on is getting better — be better today than we were yesterday,” Spagnuolo said. “And hopefully if we can just continue doing that, we’ll find a way to not have a letdown.”
