Chiefs DC Knows How to Beat Tom Brady

Chiefs DC Knows How to Beat Tom Brady – Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo has developed his own approach to beating Tom Brady which mostly uses pressure up the middle. Spagnuolo has now served as a Defensive Coordinator for 9 years of his coaching career and during his time as a DC, he’s 3-and-2 versus Brady, reducing his normal high level of success, a .770 winning percentage, to a less than stellar “winning” percentage of .400. 

Spags, as he is known by, started out in Philadelphia under Andy Reid in 1999 as an assistant. He spent 8 years at several different assistant positions, learning the defensive complexities from Reid’s excellent long time Defensive Coordinator, Jimmy Johnson.

In 2007, the New York Giants HC, Tom Coughlin, hired Spags to be his Defensive Coordinator. His team has faced Tom Brady 5 times, 4 in the regular season and once in Super Bowl XLII in February of 2008 (following the 2007 season). That was the same year the Patriots were 18-and-0 going into the Super Bowl, but Spags D held them to 14 points.

Spags Lost His First Game Against Tom Brady, 35-38

It was a Week 17 game, then his D took three playoff wins on the road before shocking the world of football by taking the unbeaten Patriots 17-to-14. Although the Giants lost to the then 15–0 New England Patriots, his Defense had learned a valuable lesson. Leading up to that Week 17 game the Giants team had not been playing quality football, but as they had enough desire to beat the undefeated Patriots, even though they had no reason to attempt for a win, other than personal pride, as they had clinched a playoff seed a week earlier. Going toe-to-toe with the perceived juggernaut, where in the fourth quarter they had a 12-point lead, before succumbing to the late heroics of QB Tom Brady. In the process of losing this game though, the Giants learned that they had the ability to play a higher quality level of football.

That Week 17 loss to NE gave them the confidence, the following week as the playoffs started, to play with a dominating defensive mindset, and an efficiently run offense. The Giants playoff scores reflect the lesson that they had learned in the last game of the regular season. 

Spags Won the Second Game Against Tom Brady, 17-14

The 2007 Super Bowl was well known has the “Helmet Catch” game.

The New England Patriots came into this game still undefeated — 18-0 for the season — and were the overwhelming favorites. They finished the regular season with the #1 ranked offense, setting the all time NFL season scoring record on the road with 314 points. However, in that last game of the regular season, the Patriot’s revealed too much of themselves to the Giants and Spagnuolo had learned the formula to cook Tom Brady.

It took some strong convincing to get his defensive players to believe in what he wanted, as they were timid and thought they would get heavily penalized for hitting the face of the NFL in Tom Brady. The plan once implemented was: to heavily pressure the quarterback and to affect Brady with pressure up the middle of their offensive line. Then, as much as legally possible within the rules of the game Spags wanted the defensive players to hit Brady, constantly letting him feel the pressure… all of which affected his timing.

Brady doesn’t have the speed to evade quick rushing defenses, and when it comes from the outside, he just steps up into the pocket, to buy more time. However, when pressure comes up the middle, it blocks his passing lanes, and he’s unable to escape to the outside.

The second part of Spagnuolo’s game plan was to effectively cover all receiver’s deep, not allowing any catches over 20 yards. It took a superlative escapability by Eli Manning, and a miraculous catch by Dave Tyree on his helmet that led to the eventual win. Following is the stat line for Brady:

Spags Lost His Third Game Against Tom Brady, 26-27

In 2015, Steve Spagnuolo returned to the Giants as the Defensive Coordinator, after his attempted failure as a head coach at St. Louis Rams from 2009-2011 where he went: 1-and-15, 7-and-9 and 2-and-14. In 2012 he filled in on the New Orleans staff as a DC for fired Greg Williams, because of the “Bounty Scandal.” Then, in 2013-2014 he served as an assistant coach with the Baltimore Ravens. His 2015 Giants roster no longer had the level of talent to adequately run his system and they finished the regular season ranked #32 in yards allowed, and #30 in points allowed. Yet even with these inadequacies on the defensive side of the ball, they narrowly lost to an undefeated New England team, as a last second field goal beat them. It was a revenge game for the Patriots as their last two Super Bowl losses, were both administered by the New York Giants. Here’s the stat line for Brady in that game:

According to ESPN Stats & Info, Brady had previously missed on 18 straight throws of 20 yards or more downfield against New York.

Spags Won Fourth Game Against Tom Brady, 23-16

After three years as the Giants Defensive Coordinator, Spagnuolo was named as the Interim Head Coach in 2017 for the last 4 games of the year. With his two stints as a Head Coach, Spags proved you can’t win enough games to survive at the NFL level without adequate talent. During the 2018 season he was not a coach for any organization, he instead took the time away, to evaluate the offenses thru ought the league, then he used his research to adjust his own defensive schemes. Then in 2019 longtime friend and mentor Andy Reid hired him, as the Chiefs Defensive Coordinator, replacing Bob Sutton. 

Here’s Brady’s stat line in the game in which the Pats beat the Giants in November of 2015:

Since the Chiefs played the Patriots in Week 14 of 2019, history has reversed itself, and now the Patriots are an average level team, while the Kansas City Chiefs are a juggernaut. The Patriots were spotted seven points to start that game, then the Chiefs scored 23 unanswered points, before allowing New England to score 9 second half garbage time points, then the Chiefs ran the final time off the clock. Here’s Mahomes’ highlights from that game:

Spags Won Game Five Against Tom Brady (27-24) 

Took place in Tampa Bay on week 12 of this 2020 season, which is also site of the Super Bowl taking place on February 7, 2021 and will be a rematch against these same Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the first quarter alone, we witnessed Tyreek Hill catching 7 passes for 203 yards and 2 TDs. From the start of this game the Chiefs had the “Switch Turned On”… as they scored 17 unanswered points, while the defense held the Buccaneers to only 124 total yards and only one touchdown in the first half. Then in the second half the Chiefs took a 27-10 lead, before seemingly taking their foot off of the gas pedal. Andy Reid is smart enough to not show future opponents too much in any given game in the regular season, and he only does just enough to win each game. Late in the game Tampa Bay eventually scored two touchdowns to draw within three points, but then Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense ran off the last four minutes to end the game, with Brady only able to watch. You can take a look at Jim Nance and Tony Romo’s booth review of this game here. Also here’s a look at Brady’s stat line from that game:

How to Beat Tom Brady: Conclusion

One more time around. Here’s a piece at EssentiallySports.com called, “Tom Brady Faces a Familiar Foe in Super Bowl Tie Versus Kansas City Chiefs” written by Shivayan Roy in which he says,

“Chiefs’ DC Steve Spagnuolo [has been] a thorn in the flesh for Tom Brady. The New England Patriots were an unstoppable unit back in the 2007 regular season. The side was a free-flowing offensive juggernaut led by Tom Brady himself. With 50 touchdowns in the regular season, Brady entered the Super Bowl game against the New York Giants as a first-team All-Pro. Heavily favored to win the tie, Brady and the Patriots were chasing history. They were unbeaten throughout the campaign.”

I am showing Brady’s career stats here to show the difference in wins and losses, and how pressure affected the outcome. 

Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo has developed his own recipe to consistently have success against Tom Brady. His basic approach is pressure up the middle as it blocks passing lanes and Tom does not possess the speed or the escapability to run outside the pocket, but is being pressured consistently. Spags wants his defensive backs to conceal their coverages by a rotation of the DBs before and after the snap, which confuses Brady. TB likes to use the entire play clock, so that he gets extra time to survey the defensive scheme. This turns into a chess match between him and Spags, as the defensive unit maintains their scheme concealment until Brady is committed to a given play. Consistent pressure affects his timing with his receivers, causing him to be less efficient, which leads to frustration and turnovers. Go Chiefs!!!

Alan Haupt — ArrowheadOne

If you are viewing this in Apple News and would like to join the Discussion, [GO HERE.](http://arrowheadone.com/k-c-chiefs-and-the-saturday-sum-up-9-30-17/#disqus_thread)