If a football team is made up of offense, defense and special teams, the Chiefs are two-thirds of the way to being a great team. Unfortunately, that remaining one-third may hold them back from where they want to go.
The 5-1 Chiefs, who suffered their first loss on Sunday night when they fell 43-40 to the Patriots, are outstanding on both offense and special teams. But as the Patriots proved, the Chiefs’ defense is a mess.
In fact, the Chiefs are allowing yardage at a record pace. Kansas City is giving up an average of 468.2 yards per game this season. That’s not just the worst in the NFL this year, it’s on pace to be the worst in NFL history: If Kansas City continues this pace for 16 games, it will give up 7,491 yards this season. The most yards allowed in NFL history was 7,042, set by the Saints in 2012.
The Chiefs have managed to win plenty this season despite that defense, but it’s hard to picture a Super Bowl winner having a defense that porous. Kansas City needs to get that fixed, or else they become likely to lose another game by a score like 43-40 in the playoffs.