Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo says he doesn't know how to stop Eagles' unstoppable play, but he might have figured something out just a week ago
The Kansas City Chiefs did not get here on the backs of Patrick Mahomes and the offense, as great as they are. Mahomes is going to go down in history as the second-best, and maybe even the best-ever quarterback to play the game by the time he retires. He's pretty good. The Chiefs have had […]
The Kansas City Chiefs did not get here on the backs of Patrick Mahomes and the offense, as great as they are. Mahomes is going to go down in history as the second-best, and maybe even the best-ever quarterback to play the game by the time he retires. He's pretty good. The Chiefs have had some of the best offenses we have ever seen over the last seven or eight years. But, this defense has played a huge part, if not bigger than the offense.
Everything revolves around Chris Jones. We know that. He is the sun, he is the one that makes everything happen, and depending on what he's doing, dictates what call the secondary has. The defense as a whole is ran through the best defensive tackle in the league, and their secondary is good enough to lock it down, too, having one of the best cornerbacks in the league in Trent McDuffie.
But, even with their defense playing as good as it is, and it's really good, they still have to deal with one of the most explosive run games we have seen in some time. The Philadelphia Eagles are a team that can hand the ball to Saquon Barkley, and at any moment he could run a 60-yard touchdown.
And believe me, they will run the ball.
According to Next Gen Stats, the Eagles led the league with a 50.4% called run rate this season, and that includes playoff games, which is the 2nd-highest rate in a single season in the Next Gen Stats era. And in the red zone, they are definitely going to run it as the Eagles have called a run on 62.0% of plays in the red zone, compared to a 47.7% run rate in the field, both the highest in the NFL.
But, that's stoppable, believe it or not. I mean, you can't really stop Barkley, but you can contain him. There is one thing the Eagles do well that the Chiefs likely won't be able to stop, and Kansas City knows it.
"I really don't," Spagnuolo said when asked if he has a gameplan when it comes to stopping the Eagles' Tush Push.
He has admitted that this one, in ways, is different than the Bills. The Eagles have employed a notably tight offensive line setup for QB sneaks this season, with an average of 3.16 yards between tackles, which is almost a yard narrower than any other team and over 1.5 yards less than the NFL's average of 4.73 yards.
The Eagles have perfected the Tush Push much better than the Buffalo Bills have. Last game, despite what you think the refs did, the Chiefs stopped the Bills a few times. There's really no stopping the Eagles. When you watch their games, they don't miss on that play.
However, there is something the Chiefs can take from what they saw Josh Allen do, and apply that to Jalen Hurts if they start to get into a ton of these Tush Push situations.
According to Next Gen Stats, across Jalen Hurts' 133 career QB sneaks this season, which include the postseason, he has opted to rush to the left 102 times (76.7%), including on 27 of his 34 QB sneaks this season (79.4%).
The two times the Chiefs stopped Allen in the AFC Championship game, he rushed left, and the Chiefs knew he would do that. And because they knew that, you have guys like Drue Tranquill jumping over the line in the exact spot Allen was going to be in, pulling him away from the first down line.
While Spagnuolo won't sit there and say what the gameplan is, or even admit he has one, they know they will handle these situations with care. They can be stopped, it just won't be easy.
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