AP Radio: The AFC title game boils down to the approach of Steve Spagnuolo

On the newest Great British Chiefs show, Brad and Tom discussed what the Chiefs need to change in their second match-up against the Cincinnati Bengals.

On the latest episode of Arrowhead Pride’s Great British Chiefs Show, Tom Childs and Brad Symcox discussed the adjustments this Chiefs defense needs to make in their rematch against the Bengals on Sunday.

(Listen to the podcast above or by clicking here. It is also available on Spotify.)

The Kansas City Chiefs fell to the Cincinnati Bengals 34-31 in Week 17 of the NFL season after allowing Joe Burrow to go 30-39 for 446 yards and four touchdowns. That included Bengals rookie superstar Ja’Marr Chase setting a single-game rookie record with 266 receiving yards and three scores. The rematch will be heavily influenced by the approach of Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.

Spagnuolo’s defensive adjustments

Tom: “It comes entirely down to Steve Spagnuolo, and what he believes is the right way to attack this game. He can’t go into this game with the same plan as Week 17 – he just can’t. Burrow will see Chase versus Ward and think here we go again…Another big thing is what the Chiefs offense can do in relation to the defensive output. They just scored 42 against the number 1 ranked defense in all of football. The score in the last one was 34-31 and just think about how much help they had in that one from Steve Spagnuolo, the referees, and the Chiefs’ bad performance…I just don’t see how the Chiefs in their own building will make those sort of mistakes again facing a really young aggressive–but inexperienced Bengals team…The Chiefs just aren’t going to be as bad as they were in Week 17.”

Brad: “Going back to Spags changing the defense, which he will have to do because of how it played out last time. The only problem I’ve got is Joe Mixon could feed off this. If he’s facing a defensive line of four and we’re sitting deep then he could find a lot more of those holes than he did last time.”

Tom: “When was the last time a run-heavy team beat the Chiefs? I don’t fear Joe Mixon at all. He’s a great running back but he doesn’t possess the fear factor of a Derrick Henry, or a Jonathan Taylor. He’s not the type of running back you need to game plan around. If you’re Steve Spagnuolo you’re game planning around stopping Tyler Boyd, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and getting pressure on Joe Burrow…If Joe Mixon gets his – is that going to be enough for the Bengals to score enough against the Chiefs?”

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