Steve Spagnuolo blames errors ‘as a unit’ for poor performance vs. Bills

The Kansas City Chiefs’ defense has been a standout strength over the past two seasons, making it surprising for some to see it surrender 30 points in Sunday’s first loss of the season to the Buffalo Bills.

Over the days to follow, there have been questions about what went wrong. Some have suggested fault lay with cornerback Nazeeh Johnson, who was making his third start at cornerback since Jaylen Watson broke his ankle in Week 7.

According to Pro Football Focus, Bills quarterback Josh Allen targeted Johnson 12 times, completing nine passes for 103 yards against him.

On Thursday, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo deflected any blame away from the young cornerback.

“There were two specifically that were as perfectly thrown balls as you could have,” said Spagnuolo. “Quite frankly, on the first one, I thought we could have done a better job of disguising what we were doing, [which] might have helped NJ (Johnson) out.”

Spagnuolo is referring to the early sequence in which Buffalo wide receiver Amari Cooper made two well-timed grabs going up against Johnson. Especially on the first play, it isn't easy to imagine Allen’s throw could have been much better.

“He was right there, one-handed catch,” said Spagnuolo. “I don’t know how you defend that. (claps). I do one of those, we line up and play defense again. The other one, we could have been a little bit tighter — and it was another great throw.”

Spagnuolo continued, explaining that he appreciated how Johnson had positioned himself on those particular plays.

“Let’s just imagine for a second if we can that both balls had gone incomplete because it wasn’t like NJ had gotten beat cleanly,” said Spagnuolo. “Put those two aside, I was more concerned with some of the errors that we made as a unit that were uncharacteristic. I showed 11 of them on Tuesday, very uncharacteristic of our group. Had we cut them in half, I think we find a way to give Patrick [Mahomes] a chance to win the game. Let’s just say that.”

Spagnuolo said the video included communication lapses and pass-rush lane issues, among other items. Defensive tackle Chris Jones thought the players in the room watching the cut-ups understood Spagnuolo’s message.

“I think it was a positive,” said Jones. “You could show us 10 plays where we could have changed, maybe the outcome could have been different, and be critical of your own errors. I don’t think we played our best game last game, and a lot of us could have played better — offensive and defensive-wise — and we’re going to get better from it. There’s a lot we can learn from.”

Third down troubles

Spagnuolo might have a point, given that regardless of all the mistakes he cited, the Chiefs were still in a position to find a way to win in the game's closing minutes.

It didn’t work out that way, with the major reason being their performance on third down. In total, Buffalo had converted 9 of 15 third-down attempts.

“The one thing that is concerning to me is that we need to win more third downs,” said Spagnuolo. “we were able to get them in third-and-6-plusses. You’ve got to win more of those, and we didn’t. I’ve got to look at what I’m calling. We got to look at what we’re doing, and there were some of those mistakes that we’re talking about in those particular plays.”

A key problem on third down was the lack of pressure on the quarterback. After finishing second in the league with 57 sacks in 2023, Kansas City now ranks 27th through 10 games.

“We’re hoping to crank it up and get the so-called numbers where we want them — or at least get the hits, pressure and getting the quarterback off his spot. Those are things that we need to get better at.”