Chiefs Hoping Superhero Lunchpail Mentality Has Bonus Dessert

“Look, these other teams can have all the rankings and stats,” Steve Spagnuolo said Thursday. “I'll take what our guys give, and have every week, and the way they fight and how hard they fight, no matter what. I mean, they just go out there and do their job and do it at a high level.”

Key stats are there, wins are not

The Chiefs actually have a lot of rankings and stats, part of what makes a 6-7 season so frustrating. Spagnuolo’s unit, for instance, ranks seventh in fewest points allowed (19.4 per game) and ninth in yards allowed (303.7).

Work ethic hasn’t been the Chiefs’ problem as they’ve seen their season spiral through four losses in the last five games. The problem has been a rash of inconsistency, bad luck and lack of execution at critical moments.

On third downs, for instance, the Chiefs’ defense has plunged to 26th in the league, allowing conversions at 43.13 percent. And while they’re not used to those results, they’re used a high-level work ethic and that won’t change.

“Yeah, I don't think anybody thought we'd be sitting here in December with seven losses,” Spagnuolo added, “but that is reality. And until somebody says you're all done playing, we just come in here and work every week. I thought Andy had a great message this morning, basically, let's go to work. That's what we do. And our guys do that, which is a good thing.”

Wrapping heads around unexpected results

What’s not a good thing, obviously, is the results. And for an organization that just saw a nine-year streak of division titles crash in the cold Arrowhead turf Sunday night, hard work not translating into results is difficult.

“When you come to an organization like this,” wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster said Friday, “where they've experienced win after win after win, the expectation is so high. So, everyone is so much harder on themselves to just be that standard, to be that bar, to be the guy that sets that bar very high, and to be a part of that.

“Because you see guys coming out, coming to work every single day, putting in the work. And for the young guys, they see that, and they want to be a part of that. And I think for them, it's more so, they’re growing and learning. And everyone just wants to be better. Everybody wants to do their job.”

Reid sees them clearly doing their jobs.

“Yeah, I like the way they've gone about their business,” Reid said Friday after practice. “They've worked hard this week, like they always do. They put in an effort to get themselves better, and that's all you can expect from a head-coach standpoint.”

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