Chiefs’ defense celebrated for doing one thing exceptionally well, ‘hell of a turnaround’

The Chiefs’ defense stifled the Giants and Malik Nabers in a Sunday Night Football win at MetLife Stadium

The Kansas City Chiefs were exposed defensively in the opening game of the season against the LA Chargers. Justin Herbert and the Chargers offense moved the ball against them consistently, and the Chiefs struggled to find an answer on the night in Brazil.

Herbert threw for 318 yards and three touchdowns in that game, while Quentin Johnston, Ladd McConkey, and Keenan Allen all had at least five catches apiece.

Johnston totaled 79 receiving yards and two touchdowns, McConkey put up 74 yards on his six catches, and Allen went for 68 yards and a score in his return to the Chargers franchise.

The Chiefs were one of the worst defenses in football in the opening week of the season, and there was immediate concern about how they might figure it out.

The secondary has lost a lot of experience in recent years, with L’Jarius Sneed, Tyrann Mathieu, and Justin Reid all playing crucial leadership roles throughout their dynasty run. Now, the unit is missing that type of figure and depends heavily on a younger group.

Kansas City may have lost in a close game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2, but their defense did its job. They held AJ Brown to just 27 receiving yards on his five catches, while Jalen Hurts totaled just 101 passing yards on the day.

The loss was frustrating, but it wasn’t because their defense couldn’t get a stop.

In Week 3, it was more of the same, as Steve Spagnuolo’s unit started to find a groove on Sunday Night Football against the New York Giants.

Russell Wilson was intercepted twice in the game, and once again the wide receivers were silenced by the coverage downfield.

The Chiefs did a particularly good job of taking Malik Nabers out of the game entirely, which left the Giants scrambling for options in the pass game.

Nabers led the NFL in receiving yards going into Week 3, and was coming into this game having had nine catches for 167 yards and two touchdowns against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 2.

However, as Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth said on the broadcast, the Chiefs’ defense was going to make you beat them ‘left-handed’, by taking their number one option out of the equation.

The Giants’ superstar was limited to two catches for 13 yards on the night, while being targeted seven times. One of those targets was a deep ball launched to the back corner of the end zone, but it was undercut and picked off by Chiefs’ cornerback Jaylen Watson.

One Chiefs blogger, Adam Best, said:

“Shutting down AJ Brown and Malik Nabers — two top-five WR talents — in back-to-back weeks is a helluva turnaround for the Chiefs’ secondary after their complete dud in Brazil.”

Steve Spagnuolo ‘gave blueprint to Giants’ opponents’ with Week 3 gameplan

According to a report from NFL Pro, Steve Spagnuolo and the Kansas City Chiefs defense used split-safety coverage on 79% of their snaps, which is the highest usage of that coverage by any team so far this season.

In doing so, the Chiefs were able to have over-the-top help covering Malik Nabers throughout the game, using the tactic on 30 of the 38 dropbacks Russell Wilson took for the Giants.

One Giants’ fan posted on X to suggest it worked so well that Spagnuolo had just handed other teams the blueprint on how to limit Malik Nabers and force Russell Wilson into uncomfortable spots.

Once again, the Kansas City Chiefs’ defensive coordinator showed why he is one of the best in the business.