Does anyone remember the first five (5) games of the Kansas City season… when they went 2-and-3 and most people were not only counting them out of the race for the first seed in the AFC, but the playoffs as well? [By the way, I had my own serious doubts at that point as well.] Things have changed drastically since then, especially with the Chiefs defense. Enough to say, that was then, and this is now. The question is: what is now? Well, based off he past 6 weeks, he Chiefs defense could easily be considered the league’s best defense.

First, let’s not forget how woefully bad the Chiefs defense started out this year. Here’s a re-cap of the results in thier first five games:

Some went so far as to call for DC Steve Spagnuolo’s head. Some were levying the worst insult of all and comparing Spags to Bob Sutton. Pete Sweeney describes this Chiefs season best:

If not for some rare offensive inconsistencies, the Chiefs would be getting crowned mid-season. Sometimes, when things go bad, things get better because of players’ response to those things going badly. That appears to be what’s happening to the Chiefs players. No better example than what Byron Pringle did on this one play:

Dan Orlovsky does an excellent job of pointing out that effort matters, which is exactly what we saw from Byron Pringle on this play, otherwise, it could have been a TD for Dallas.

So, if the Chiefs defense was once allowing 32.5 points per game, what have they been up (or down) to in the past six (6) games?

Aaron Ladd makes it look even better than that:

Or how about what Kent Swanson has to say:

So, where does the Chiefs defense currently stand among the leagues best? They started out the year as one of hte league’s worst two defenses but now they rank 14th overall in points allowed with 22.7 PPG. If you look at only hte past 6 games, he Chiefs defense has been he leagues best allowing jus 14.5 PPG, while the top five teams (for the whole season) look like this:

On the other hand, the Patriots defense has only given up 13 total points over he pas three (3) weeks. In this “What Have You Done For Me Lately” league, the Colts just scored 41 on the Bills and they’re 2-and-3 in their last five (5) games, the Broncos are 2-and-5 in their past 7 games while giving up more than 22 PPG, the Cards are 2-and-2 in their last four games giving up 22 PPG, and the Packers are 1-and-2 in their past three (3) game, but they did blank the Seahawks.

So, the Chiefs going 4-and-0 (5-and-1 beyond that) in their last four games places them back in the championship conversations:

The reason has mostly to do with the defense and he progress they’ve made in he past month of November:

What stands out about this game, which the defense just sailed through — besides the many contributions from Chris Jones, L’Jarius Sneed, Charvarius Ward, Tyrann Mathieu, and Frank Clark, and many more — is that the defense didn’t give up a touchdown to a Cowboys team that was averaging 31 points per game prior to that. Three FGs and that’s it. An amazing performance by anyone’s standards.

Naysayers: “Pick-a-Little-Talk-a-Little“

Some will say these wins came against compromised competition. Like the Washington Football team, the same WFT who recently beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and have won their last two in a row… or some will then throw the win over the Packers in your face saying that if they had had Aaron “The Cheater” Rodgers they would have won that game, but does anyone really believe the Green Bay OL would have stopped the Chiefs DL anyway… or some will say the Giants are trash… and although New York has won their two other games in the past three weeks… all those same naysayer will not be convinced.

There’s no denying that these Chiefs are now 7-and-4 with a four game winning streak and the biggest reason for their turnaround is the defense.

Naysayers need only look at the real difference the Chiefs defense has made in yards per game (YPG) allowed:

That 303.5 YPG would land the Chiefs defense in third place behind the Bills (who just got walloped by the Colts 41-to-15) and the Panthers (who the so-called “terrible” WFT whipped 27-to-21 on Sunday).

With 6 games to go, and K.C. now getting a Bye Week to rest their bones, right now it looks like no team will want to face the Chiefs when the playoff arrive. They may be the most feared team to face in the playoffs at this point.

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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