Spagnuolo takes blame for defensive struggles, prepares for Texans’ offensive firepower
Got some coffee. I never even noticed that. Alright, let me, uh, I hope everybody has happy Thanksgiving because I didn’t, when, uh, and that’s for *** whole week removed from it, so it’s hard to go back, but I’m sure you guys all have questions, so I would just say this going back to the game, I give, uh, Dallas and their offense and Dack *** lot of credit. 31 points like as *** defense we were totally disappointed in that you’re not gonna win *** lot of games when you give up 31 points and the two glaring plays was that I thought were uncharacteristic of our guys was one the 43 yard run right up the middle. We haven’t had one of those, I think since the was it Baltimore at the end of the game when they had that 70 yard run. And then the, uh, you know, we backed up, you know, when we get *** team backed up, we’re supposed to get them the punt and get Patrick the ball back at the 50 but we gave up that big play and those two, I just kind of stick *** little bit. The other thing that I’ll finish with and then I’ll open it up is. We’re not, we weren’t very good on 3rd down, and I take the full blame for that. I, I just, you know, we gotta have *** better game plan. We gotta put the guys in better situations and try to make some plays because you can’t, you can’t be like that on 3rd down and expect to win or to keep the point total, uh, down low, so. Yeah, hopefully you don’t have too many questions about that game because I’d like to move on, but I’ll open it up. How do you reconcile having to be physical at the line? maybe be on 5 yards with these receivers, but then also you’re on the back end with the, yeah, it’s uh. You know, when I was I sat with Trent and and Jaylen and. Some of those are probably gonna happen. When you play like that and you play that good *** team with all those uh weapons that they had, we just would like to have cut it in half. I mean if you could have just take cutting them in half, I mean it would have made *** pretty big difference, but you know we’re not gonna be stop being physical we’re not gonna be stopped being aggressive. We’ll try to get better you guys have probably been at practice before, you know, we put the, uh, the mitts on the guys, you know, and we’ll we’ll get back to that, you know, we’ll try to get it ironed out, but those guys get *** lot of pride in the way they play and. I don’t want him to be any less aggressive. I just wanna be *** little bit better. The one thing that I never like is when we grab jerseys because, you know, that’s just the undisciplined thing. So if we can, if we can clean that up would be better. It’s *** trends, especially the back out the season so far. Just is there anything you’re identifying as *** trend or anything? No, I mean, look at this, there’s obviously obvious ones that we think about, um. No, it’s It’s either not *** good call or you know somebody or they make *** good play or somebody’s not in the right position. I, I there’s not one thing. I mean I have to go back and look at all of them, but I, uh, they’re down overall in my opinion just needs to be better. How much games without *** sack Yeah years since that happened, yeah. No, I mean, uh, listen, I think sacks are great and we always wanna get him. I’m more, I’m more into did we affect the quarterback? Did we make him throw it out quick, you know, did, uh, but you know, you gotta do *** combination that’s not just the upfront guys it could be the call. You know, not *** good one. I didn’t like, uh, the 2nd or 3rd 1 that we had. Uh, first one was good, right, um. I should talk more about that one, but I, you know, sometimes we gotta be *** one step tighter in coverage to give the guys *** chance. Like I, I remember one particular call that we had it’s to try to get Crystal one on one. We got it. He won, but it was *** half *** tick late. And so now maybe is, you know, could somebody cover just *** little bit longer on the back end but once we get the combination of Russian coverage together, maybe some of those will come. quite *** bit. Do you find that teams are getting better against the more anticipatory, or is it just *** different reason that maybe they didn’t get home? The first one got home. I’m gonna keep going back to that one, but no, there were others that, uh, we were off *** little bit in technique. Uh, I thought they did *** good job on another particular one I’m thinking of. They, uh, it looked to me like Dack got him. He, you know, sniffed out something, and then he got him into *** particular route and it was tough on Trent, uh, so I tip my hat off to them on that particular 3rd down and there’s gonna be some of those, you know. But somewhere in there, I, I don’t know it was 9 or 16 or whatever it was we gotta find *** way to win 4 of those out of the 9 that we lost and that changed *** lot of things. We know injuries are gonna happen. With Brian Cook going out early in the game, just how did that affect your ability to call certain things and just what was that learning lesson for someone like Jager Dicks. Yeah it was it was got *** little hairy there you know so um Chris Roland Wallace, you know, didn’t make the trip so we’re already down to safety elevate Mike uh Mike hasn’t really had to practice all week but he’s *** vet and he knows what he’s doing but when Brian went out. And then I don’t know if you guys remember or saw that there was *** 3 or 4 place swing there where Chamari Conner was hurt. And so now there’s *** lot of things going on because when I try to get in the sub packages it’s either the safeties or corners or this trunk go inside as you go outside so there was *** moment there now we, we handled it relatively OK. Uh, it could have been *** little bit better on one actually on the 4th and 4th, uh, that’s about when that happened, the 14th down that they, they went for and we lost, uh, it gets, it gets hairy. It’s the NFL guys are gonna get hurt. People are gonna have to go in and play. Um, there wasn’t to, to your point. Uh, there was an aspect of we ran *** play in the game. Where we brought up brought *** pressure and the guys in the pressure weren’t in the spots we had practiced because guys got hurt. And that happens, um, but hopefully we’re hoping our walkthroughs and it’s not like we didn’t know what to do, but we were just *** little bit of *** tick off so. Yeah, we gotta, we gotta rise up above the injuries because they’re gonna come talk about Houston, their offense. I’m glad we’re gonna talk about Houston. Uh, listen, they all of *** sudden it’s all clicking in my opinion. I, I look at that whole team first of all, I mean they’re well put together. They play off of their defense. They’re really good on defense, but getting the quarterback back, this may be one of the best overall receiver groups that we’re gonna see. Uh, they can run the football and they got *** quarterback that’s, you know, dynamic with his feet and getting it out of trouble, so it doesn’t get any easier. There’s no. You know, soft pitches in this league, uh, we need to play better defense hopefully being at home, you know, we can take it up *** little bit. What do you see some similarities with having to face an eco just size wise to to maybe just Yeah, we had *** couple of big, big guys in the against Colts too, um, yeah, *** lot of carry he’s really good. And you can tell they try to get the ball to him so hopefully you can find ways to take him out of the game and be good enough covering the other guys because I don’t think it’s just *** one man show in that receiver group. I think they got *** really the, the young rookie ’81 is really playing well and they got *** bunch of guts in there too. Well, along those lines, you know, they’re two biggest receivers, you know, we’re both 6’4 guys kind of like Dallas and two big receivers. What’s the challenge with that, especially since, you know, some of your guys are *** little on the smaller side. Yeah, I mean Jalen’s got some size to him and you know Trent’s *** good football player and he’s played big guys before. I mean, you know, we gotta, without, you know, occurring the penalties, we gotta try to win at the line of scrimmage because when these guys get down field their catch radius is such that. You know, they can catch it anywhere and everywhere and the quarterbacks, you know, their quarterback, both of them, both of the quarterbacks that have been on tape, have *** lot of confidence in these guys just to throw the ball up, um. It’s *** pretty good challenge. It doesn’t, it doesn’t get any easier, that’s for sure. Coach, what are you seeing like attitude confidence wise from you guys? I know. Most of the guys have been in this position where it’s in the 6 and 6 in December and are you seeing kind of like what you’d expect to see from them coming back for this game? I can tell you this, Todd like yesterday we had ***, um, I mean you guys saw the practice, you know, coach on Wednesdays says the no helmet practice and we’ve had *** bunch of those in the seven years I’ve been here. I told the unit this morning that I thought that was the best no helmet practice that we’ve had here in 7 years. I guess where I’m going with it is that you know nobody’s lost uh interest in what we’re doing. Nobody’s lost, but I think they have just jacked it up, talk about the defensive guys in their preparation because they know, you know, the margin for error now is really, really small, so happy with kind of with the way they were acting right now. You just gotta go out and do it. On Sunday, right? Yeah, thanks.
Spagnuolo takes blame for defensive struggles, prepares for Texans’ offensive firepower
Updated: 8:26 PM CST Dec 4, 2025
Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said he is taking responsibility for Kansas City’s defensive issues in last week’s loss to Dallas, particularly on third down and in explosive-play situations.“You’re not going to win a lot of games when you give up 31 points,” Spagnuolo said. “We have got to have a better game plan; we have to put the guys in better situations.”The focus now shifts to the Houston Texans, who Spagnuolo said are “all clicking” with quarterback C.J. Stroud back under center and a talented group of receivers.“This may be one of the best overall receiver groups that we’re going to see,” he said.Spagnuolo added that Kansas City must win early in routes to limit the “catch radius” advantage of Houston’s taller wideouts.“There’s no soft pitches in this league,” he said. “We need to play better defense.”Hear more from Spagnuolo in the video above. You can watch portions of his comments below. Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo on C.J. Stroud and Texans offense – Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo on defending big receivers – Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo takes blame for third-down struggles -Steve Spagnuolo: “We were totally disappointing” in loss to Dallas Cowboys –
KANSAS CITY, Mo. —
Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said he is taking responsibility for Kansas City’s defensive issues in last week’s loss to Dallas, particularly on third down and in explosive-play situations.
“You’re not going to win a lot of games when you give up 31 points,” Spagnuolo said. “We have got to have a better game plan; we have to put the guys in better situations.”
The focus now shifts to the Houston Texans, who Spagnuolo said are “all clicking” with quarterback C.J. Stroud back under center and a talented group of receivers.
“This may be one of the best overall receiver groups that we’re going to see,” he said.
Spagnuolo added that Kansas City must win early in routes to limit the “catch radius” advantage of Houston’s taller wideouts.
“There’s no soft pitches in this league,” he said. “We need to play better defense.”
Hear more from Spagnuolo in the video above. You can watch portions of his comments below.
Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo on C.J. Stroud and Texans offense –
Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo on defending big receivers –
Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo takes blame for third-down struggles –
Steve Spagnuolo: “We were totally disappointing” in loss to Dallas Cowboys –