Chris Jones, Steve Spagnuolo Reflect on Chiefs’ Season

“This year, we lost in a different type of fashion,” he said Thursday, “one that we weren’t familiar with. And it's all a learning curve for us. It's a lot of lessons we learned, a lot of broken jaws we took over the course of this year. We got punched in the face a lot.”

Not only punched in the face, but many times, the Chiefs couldn’t counter-punch their opponent. And when the Chiefs’ offense clawed for points, too often the defense allowed points, too.

Critical fourth-quarter drive last week

In last week’s loss to Denver, Harrison Butker hit a game-tying 47-yard field goal with eight minutes left. Needing a stop, the Chiefs couldn’t get off the field on third-and-1. Then, Kansas City allowed a back-breaking pass on third-and-10, a blown coverage that ultimately led to the go-winning touchdown.

Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said he’s unable to pinpoint the exact reason the Chiefs have struggled so much this season on third downs, especially third-and-6 or longer.

“I've been looking at it every week,” he said Thursday, “and it's either they make a play or we make a mistake. Now, the frustrating ones are when they're a little longer, the third-and-10-pluses. And we've always been really good at that, and for whatever reason, it kind of bit us in the butt this year.”

Bitten by an angry shark. The Chiefs have plummeted in recent weeks and enter the Las Vegas season finale on Sunday (3:25 p.m. CT, CBS/KCTV, Channel 5, 96.5 The Fan), ranked 29th in the league in third-down percentage, allowing conversions at 45.0 percent.

Third-down slide

But as Spagnuolo said Thursday, the defense has played well in stretches. And Jones noted that he’s grateful for the rough patches, even when there were a lot more of them this year compared to his first nine NFL seasons.

“It builds you,” Jones said. “It builds character, builds individuals. You see what type of team you have, how you respond, and how they respond in the midst of adversity. So, for me, this was just a huge learning curve for us. Also a building block. We can take so much from this year. There was a lot of good in this year, also.”

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