The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Chiefs’ defense has earned spotlight
This season’s unit, overseen by Steve Spagnuolo, is the team’s best in the Patrick Mahomes era.
BALTIMORE — A plume of cigar smoke clouded the visiting locker room at M&T Bank Stadium last Sunday night. Music thumped, and Kansas City Chiefs defenders, still riding high after their conference championship game win over the Baltimore Ravens, paraded around in custom T-shirts featuring images of coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and a catchy slogan: “In Spags We Trust.”
“I had these made just to show you how much we believe in Coach Spags,” safety Justin Reid said. “Coach Spags is the greatest defensive coordinator ever. I’ve played for five defensive coordinators. I love Coach Spags.”
The Chiefs had plenty of reasons to love Spagnuolo after they rattled a Ravens offense that converted just three of 11 third down attempts, turned the ball over three times and rushed for just 81 yards, its lowest output since the first game of the 2022 season. With Spagnuolo pulling the strings, the Chiefs did what so few teams have been able to do this season: frustrate probable MVP Lamar Jackson.
“We threw the book at Lamar,” Reid said. “Zone pressures, man pressures, fake pressures that look like pressures and end up being zone drops. So we tried to do as much as we could to confuse him and not give him the same look twice throughout the whole game.”
The Chiefs also left no doubt that Patrick Mahomes will return to the Super Bowl with his finest defense yet, a luxury he has learned to value even more this season.
Kansas City relied on its defense to keep Jackson at bay. The Chiefs got off to a quick start with two touchdowns, but they turned the ball over on downs in the second quarter, then punted on six of their next seven drives.
“Whenever they’re rolling like that, I have to kind of manage my game,” Mahomes said. “... Even if we’re not having the success that I want to have, (if ) the defense is rolling (and) getting stops, let’s just take the safe choice, get the ball out of my hand, don’t turn the ball over, and let’s go win a football game.”
Kansas City hired Spagnuolo in 2019 to improve an aging defense that ranked near the bottom of the league in many major statistical categories. With an influx of draft talent — including cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and L’Jarius Sneed, linebacker Nick Bolton and defensive end George Karlaftis — and key free agent signings such as Reid, Spagnuolo turned the Chiefs into a top defense. This season, only the Cleveland Browns allowed fewer yards.
In the AFC title game, the transformation was obvious.
The Chiefs’ defensive game plan centered on containing Jackson. They turned to their safeties, cornerbacks and linebackers to bring extra pressure, blitzing him on 43.8 percent of his dropbacks. Kansas City hadn’t blitzed that much in any game (regular season or playoffs) in two years, and the defense married its rush and coverage to try to take away Jackson’s deep options.
With sticky coverage on the back end, Kansas City forced Jackson to hold on to the ball for an average of 3.3 seconds, per TruMedia, giving its blitzers time to get home. (During the regular season, Jackson’s average was 2.9 seconds.)
“We knew we were frustrating ( Jackson) the whole game,” Reid said. “He’s a tough opponent. We just challenged ourselves to keep the pressure on him and not to let up and relax and let him get back into the game. We kept the pressure on him the whole game.”
In the fourth quarter, four plays after Ravens rookie wide receiver Zay Flowers beat Sneed in coverage for a 54-yard catch, Sneed responded by forcing Flowers to
fumble at the goal line. The Chiefs rushed six, and Sneed sprinted from the other side of the field to tackle Flowers and punch the ball out just before he crossed the goal line. The Chiefs recovered in the end zone for a touchback, ensuring their two-score lead remained intact.
“We were able to kind of play tango or cover-three on the other side with man-to-man on (Sneed’s) side because we’ve got faith and trust in him,” defensive tackle Chris Jones said. “We’re not worried about (Sneed). He adds a whole other dynamic to this defense.”
Even when they sent only four rushers, the Chiefs still managed to get to Jackson. Defensive end Charles Omenihu strip-sacked him in the second quarter, and Karlaftis, who also had a sack, recovered. In the fourth quarter, safety Deon Bush intercepted Jackson in the end zone. Bush, who was elevated from the practice squad in early December, played only two snaps Sunday before his interception.
As Bush celebrated with his teammates, Jackson trudged off the field and slammed his helmet in frustration.
“Is it one of the better defenses? Yeah, I’d say it’s one of the better defenses that I’ve been around,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Monday. “We had some real good ones in Philadelphia, and some of the early defenses here, I don’t want to slight those guys — they did a nice job for us. Surely, this is a defense that has helped guide this team along as the offense was growing. Now that both are playing well, that’s a tribute to everybody involved.”
SANTA CLARA, CALIF. — San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York always has appreciated coach Kyle Shanahan’s honesty, starting from his first interview when he called the team’s roster the worst in the NFL. So York didn’t know what he would hear when Shanahan told him he needed to talk about a week into 2022 training camp.
“He’s like, ‘I think our thirdstring quarterback is our best quarterback,’” York said Thursday as his team prepares for the Super Bowl. “I’m like, ‘OK. What does that mean?”
It meant a lot. The 49ers had traded three first-round picks to draft Trey Lance third overall a little more than a year before that, and still had Jimmy Garoppolo and his $20 million salary on the roster after he had helped the team reach the Super Bowl after the 2019 season and the NFC title game after the 2021 season.
“One thing that owners don’t love to hear when they’ve invested money or draft picks or both into people is that the last pick in the draft is the guy that we think is the best,” York said. “That’s generally not great news. But he’s honest and he let it play out the right way.”
San Francisco went into the 2022 season with Lance as the starter, Garoppolo back as the No. 2 QB on a reduced salary and Brock Purdy, the last pick in the 2022 draft out of Iowa State, as third-stringer.
Lance got hurt in Week 2, leading to Garoppolo taking over. Purdy got a brief cameo in a Week 7 loss to Kansas City, throwing one interception and another errant pass into the stands.
“I may or may not have had some sarcastic comments here for Kyle postgame,” York said.
But when Garoppolo went down in Week 13, Purdy stepped in and hasn’t relinquished the job. He won his first seven starts to get the Niners to the NFC title game before an injured elbow on the opening drive derailed that game against Philadelphia.
That didn’t shock York, who had been prepared for the possibility months earlier.
“When Brock took over last year, I think we had a calm about us,” York said. “You might not love everything that Kyle tells you, but he’s always open and honest, especially in the moment.”
Purdy’s performance firmly established him as the starter, and Lance was traded to Dallas in August for a fourth-round pick.
Purdy came back from the elbow injury and played at an even higher level this season, leading the league in passer rating (113.0) and yards per attempt (9.6) and setting a franchise record with 4,280 yards passing.
That earned him a spot as an MVP finalist and helped give York’s
Niners a shot at the Super Bowl title that has eluded him since taking over the day-to-day operations from his parents late in 2008.
The 49ers lost Super Bowls following the 2012 and 2019 seasons and fell four other times in the NFC title game before getting back to the Super Bowl this season in hopes of delivering the franchise’s first championship in 29 seasons.
York called losing in the NFC championship game “the worst feeling in the world,” but his Super Bowl appearances haven’t been much easier.
The Niners were 5 yards away from the go-ahead score in the final two minutes against Baltimore in Super Bowl 47, then had a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter against the Chiefs in Super Bowl 54 before losing 31-20.
“When you’re up by 10 points against a team in a Super Bowl, thoughts are going through your head like, ‘Wow, we’re going to have a parade. Somebody’s going to Disneyland. This is going to be awesome,’” York said. “Then you don’t. That’s part of playing in the NFL.”
The Niners get another shot at Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City on Feb. 11 in Las Vegas, and York, 44, is savoring the opportunity. He was almost 1 when the 49ers won their first Super Bowl in January 1982.
“You never know when you’re going to have the opportunity to be here,” he said. “You have to make the most of it. You have to celebrate it.”