Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo spoke with reporters on Thursday during his press conference, revealing his strategy against the Indianapolis Colts’ offense with league-leading running back Jonathan Taylor.
“(Defensive Line Coach) Joe Cullen (and I) start off with the run meeting in the morning and he brought up the point that I always say, we’ve been faced with this challenge a lot, this year (and)other years,” said Spagnuolo, “When our guys as a unit – as a group put their mind to playing good run defense, I believe we can do that. It’s when we get out of whack a little bit and see something that’s not there or take a chance here, so hopefully, we play good, solid group unit run defense. We’re going to need to do that again. To me, where he (Colts RB Jonathan Taylor) is really scary – this running back, is that when he pops it and gets in the second level, we all know what kind of speed he has.”
Spagnuolo would go on to weigh in on the challenges of balancing a run-blocking scheme and dealing with play-action passes.
“Anytime a team matches the play action with the run really well, that’s tough. It’s toughest on the second level defenders, our safeties and linebackers.” said Spagnuolo, “We always talk about reading high hats and low hats and we study that – there’s a tape that is put together every week and so hopefully our eyes will be right and when they throw it, we’re playing the pass and when they run it, we’re playing the run. That would be good defense.”
The Colts offense has emerged as one of the more explosive units in the league this season, with Taylor and quarterback Daniel Jones leading the way.
