Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has seen his defense evolve each season and make strides to improve this year, especially in the secondary and defensive line. On Thursday, he spoke with reporters about keeping the team motivated for two weeks, during which they won’t have a meaningful game until the postseason divisional round.
“The first PowerPoint that I put up on Tuesday was, ‘Do Not Lose Your Edge.’ We’ve went two-and-a-half months of off-season work. We went, whatever it’s been, five-and-a-half months since July of all this work to get to this point.” said Spagnuolo. “Why would we back off? Why would we lose our edge? I’m talking about it in preparation and how the guys practice, what they might do with their bodies physically, rest, all those things. That was an emphasis at the beginning.”
Pro Bowler Chris Jones continues to lead the defensive line, featuring plenty of contributions from George Karlaftis, who has eight sacks on the season. Tershawn Wharton has a single-season career-high of 6.5 this year. Felix Anudike-Uzomah has 2.5 sacks, and Mike Danna now owns 3.5 sacks during the season.
“We’ve also challenged our guys – look, depending on where this all goes and we have this Week 18 to figure out who the playoff team – there’s a chance we play this team (Denver Broncos) again,” said Spagnuolo. “So if I’m sitting there listening to all the information about Denver’s offense, I want to accumulate that for – you know, to be ready for this – not only this game but in the chance that we end up playing them again.”
In the secondary, Pro Bowl snub, Trent McDuffie, along with his two interceptions, has seven career forced fumbles. He finished the Week 17 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers with four total tackles, one pass defensed, and one forced fumble. Justin Reid had two interceptions on the season, and rookie cornerback Chris Roland-Wallace led the Kansas City defense in tackles on Christmas Day with ten.