Sunday's Defensive Performance Showed How Much the Chiefs Have Evolved
As the Kansas City Chiefs cruised to a 43-16 win over the Denver Broncos on Sunday, it was refreshing to see the Chiefs secure a win without relying on the offense to do it.
Once revered as a team with a great offense and bad defense, the Chiefs have flipped the script, now winning a game because of their defense. And I kind of liked it.
Arrowhead Report's Jordan Foote joined me on today's Roughing the Kicker podcast to recap the Chiefs big win over the Broncos and give his thoughts on the matter.
In Sunday's game, Kansas City's defense forced four turnovers and scored a touchdown of their own while the special teams unit was able to put points on the board, taking pressure off of the offense.
After being dogged following the Las Vegas Raiders game, the defense has stepped up two weeks in a row, allowing a combined 33 points to the Buffalo Bills and Broncos.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes said after the game he not only has seen an evolution in how the team is playing but how he himself plays knowing the other units are playing at a high level.
"It’s something that I’ve learned in my career so far—I was talking to Tyrann [Mathieu] about it after the game actually—I was like, ‘Young Patrick probably would have tried to force it and thrown a bad ball and maybe an interception,'" Mahomes said. "'Whereas now, seeing the way that the defense is playing and knowing that it’s not there and maybe taking the sack or not completing the pass and throwing it away to where it’s not intercepted.' You have to learn ways to win in this league, it’s not always going to be 400 passing yards or 200 rushing yards, it’s going to be finding ways to win and I think this team is doing a great job of doing that.”
While I will admit, the Broncos aren't the toughest team the Chiefs will have to face all year, it is promising that the defense showed it can provide points.
The next few games Kansas City should win, so seeing the defense flex its muscles and score some points while taking some pressure off of the offense to produce on every possession will be a much-needed tool heading into the final half of the season.
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