Chiefs hire Steve Spagnuolo as new defensive coordinator

[TLO]

The #Chiefs are hiring Steve Spagnuolo as their new defensive coordinator, sources say. The former #Giants DC and interim HC/#Rams HC began his NFL coaching career as an #Eagles assistant under Andy Reid. Now rejoins Big Red in KC.

— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) January 24, 2019

[New World Order]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

I said it before the game - the Bills offense scores most of its points from outside the RZ. The Chiefs game plan should have been to force them to be flawless in the RZ and guess what? They weren't.

The defense did EXACTLY what was needed to win this game. The offense didn't hold up its end of the deal.

The defense played ****ing spectacular.

They held a top 3 offense to 24 ****ing points and if our offense could have just picked up a few first downs it would have been 17 points.

This loss is on the offense.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by tredadda

This defense is not 90’s era Chiefs, but it’s really hard to pin either loss on them. STs cost us against Indy and the Offense/STs against Buffalo. If our STs were even competent against Indy we win easily. Against Buffalo, the bad INT early when we could have had 3 and the missed FG cost us that game. They hit those and KC would have had a 26-17 lead and Buffalo would have needed to score a TD and get an onside kick to have a chance. Or had the offense been able to close out the game when they had a 20-17 lead things would have been different.

The defense still needs to grow and we still need a pass rusher in the worst way, but I can’t see how they are getting criticized for their performance so far.

It's all about performance against expectation.

The defense is doing what it needs to do, despite the warts. Can they get better? Yes. Will they get better? Probably.

The offense is a big problem right now. They need to put together more drives.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by O.city

Josh Allen was never "in hell"

For ****s sake, they marched up and down the field all day.

First 4 drives:

Turnover
FG
Turnover on downs
Punt

They were putting heat in Josh too and he couldn’t handle it at all. 30+ pts per game offense couldn’t score a TD until the end of the first half when we had a terrible penalty helping them out.

Spags young, inexperienced and injured defense did that.

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

It's all about performance against expectation.

The defense is doing what it needs to do, despite the warts. Can they get better? Yes. Will they get better? Probably.

The offense is a big problem right now. They need to put together more drives.

I do think that some of the criticisms come from PTSD from the bad defenses of yesteryear. For a long time our defense was not very good and as such fans expect it to be bad and default to it as a reason why KC loses. We have become so spoiled with a Reid/Mahomes offense that we sometimes won’t blame them for not performing and just revert back to ol’ Trusty, which is the defense.

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by RunKC

First 4 drives:

Turnover
FG
Turnover on downs
Punt

They were putting heat in Josh too and he couldn’t handle it at all. 30+ pts per game offense couldn’t score a TD until the end of the first half when we had a terrible penalty helping them out.

Spags young, inexperienced and injured defense did that.

Spags is a ****ing magician as far as I'm concerned.

He was playing a shell game and winning most of the day.

We've got pass rush problems, but you can't hang this on Spags.

[Marcellus]

Interesting stat from the Buffalo game - Buffalo was -.2 EPA against the blitz including the 2 TD's the rookie gave up. INCLUDING.

Overall they ended the game at .21 EPA and a whopping .49EPA against the pass so the blitz was way way more effective than none blitz defense.

But they made us pay 2x. Its a double edged sword.

[Hammock Parties]

we really can't blame spags

if this was the alex smith era we'd be screaming bloody murder about only scoring 20 points against an elite QB

mahomes gotta do better

[O.city]

Originally Posted by RunKC

First 4 drives:

Turnover
FG
Turnover on downs
Punt

They were putting heat in Josh too and he couldn’t handle it at all. 30+ pts per game offense couldn’t score a TD until the end of the first half when we had a terrible penalty helping them out.

Spags young, inexperienced and injured defense did that.

Fluke fumble
FG
WR tripped on his ass in endzone
Punt.

The defense played admirable and well. They didn't have Josh Allen in "hell".

If 350 and 3 TD's is hell, then yikes.

[Sassy Squatch]

2 punts, 2 turnovers on downs, and a turnover. Against the 2022 Bills that's an absolutely fabulous performance. They more than held their own, especially given the manpower problems in the back 7.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

Interesting stat from the Buffalo game - Buffalo was -.2 EPA against the blitz including the 2 TD's the rookie gave up. INCLUDING.

Overall they ended the game at .21 EPA and a whopping .49EPA against the pass so the blitz was way way more effective than none blitz defense.

But they made us pay 2x. Its a double edged sword.

Now imagine we have McDuffie out there as opposed to Williams.

Those 2 TDs are probably a lot harder to come by.

[O.city]

The QB makes half a billion dollars. You aren't gonna have an "elite" defense, money just ain't gonna happen to allow it.

You've gotta win that game. The defense gave you all the chances you needed.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by staylor26

Now imagine we have McDuffie out there as opposed to Williams.

Those 2 TDs are probably a lot harder to come by.

Wouldn't hurt for sure. But those were dime throws to good WR's. Other team makes plays, it happens.

Still only giving up what they did is great.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Respectfully, I'll gladly coach Mahomes out of that last interception.

That was first down. You cannot make that play there and if means missing on the occasional remarkable play on 1st down (that he'll probably just make on 2nd or 3rd instead), so be it.

But the issue with that play isn't that it happened, its that it happened on 1st down with a minute left and 2 timeouts. Just throw the damn ball away.

Allen would've...

That’s fair.

I’m guessing it’s semantics we disagree on. I don’t want to coach him out of making those type of plays or even looking for that play in that situation. You can coach him on game situation and what to look for with routes. I’m
Not worried about overloading that dudes brain. But I under no circumstances want him to stop escaping and looking to make a play when shit breaks down. Those are what makes him great and if you have to eat some of those to get the 4 AFCCG Mahomes let’s roll.

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

And think of how much the offense could've helped the defense out.

The drive before the Bills long score at the end of the half was held back by a taunting penalty and then snuffed out entirely by a sack. Don't commit that penalty or don't get sacked on 2nd down and Buffalo probably doesn't bother using timeouts and doesn't get the ball back with any time at all. Could the defense have done better? Sure - but that gets back to the 'hey, the DL sucks and those guys are good'. They made a play. Shit happens.

And like you said, 3 and out with a 3 point lead and 7 minutes left....you've just gotta be better there on offense. It still took Buffalo 12 plays to get down the field there, including a 3rd and 4th down conversion. We were trying to force them to do what teams do to us - execute a dozen times to drive the field. They did.

With a chance to do the same the drive before it, we didn't.

And that was the difference in the ball game.

Yep. This game was super winnable. But I’m not going to cast a bunch of stones at the offense because they’re good too.

Much like you can’t dog the defense for not shutting out Allen I’m not going to assert that the offense should have been flawless against the Bills D.

This was pretty much a coin flip game. A couple plays here or there and it’s a different outcome both ways. And that’s what we can expect after the last playoff game and our losses. Besides it’s optimistic because we have fixed our cap problems and they’re all in and have to make hard decisions moving forward.

I’m guessing you’re not making the points I’m trying to refute, but I haven’t participated in most of the postgame meltdown, so I’m getting it out there.

I just have a hard time making grand proclamations (again, not saying you are just responding to the group) about two evenly matched teams. Plays happen in sports. Nobody is undeafeated.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

Interesting stat from the Buffalo game - Buffalo was -.2 EPA against the blitz including the 2 TD's the rookie gave up. INCLUDING.

Overall they ended the game at .21 EPA and a whopping .49EPA against the pass so the blitz was way way more effective than none blitz defense.

But they made us pay 2x. Its a double edged sword.

You can't beat elite QB's with the blitz. Occasional well timed blitzes, sure.

But that can't be where your pressure comes from.

How the hell did we get here guys? How did they ever think this front 4 was good enough? I'll never understand.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

But that's EXACTLY the idea behind the bend don't break models that everyone is using now. That Fangio bullshit.

It says that if you make them execute 12-15 times, eventually a WR is going to trip over his own feet on 4th down.

Gotta recalibrate your speedometer here. These ain't the same sized tires you were driving on 25 years ago.

Oh I understand it.

I also think it's a reason you need blue chippers. Hear me out here, but the more times you ask guys to make plays, the more likely flukey shit happens.

It's why you need that guy to make a sack, or that guy to make a play on a YAC.

The depth and stuff absolutely matters thru the season. But against other elite teams and in the playoffs, I'm thinking you need your Mahomes and Kelce's and Jones and insert whoever, to just be able to wreck a play.