Five reasons why KC Chiefs are different team from week 6 loss

The KC Chiefs host the Houston Texans in the Divisional Round this weekend and even though they previously lost to Houston, this Chiefs team is a different unit from the one we saw in that game back in October.

*EDITOR’S NOTE – Cameron Black, the staff member who wrote this, is blind, but has a great feel for the game, even without his vision. This article was written with the help of a screen reader.*

It has been a somewhat different season for the Kansas City Chiefs than it was in 2018, when we saw very little stand in the way of the high flying offense. Th offense zoomed its way to the AFC Championship game, just to have their season come to an end on an offsides call and a overtime coin flip while facing arguably, at the time, one of the greatest dynasties the league has ever seen in the New England Patriots.

Now, almost one year later, the Chiefs find themselves in a similar position. They’re about to face off against a more than worthy opponent in the Houston Texans in the divisional round of the playoffs. The Chiefs played the Texans way back in week six of the regular season, on October 13th to be exact.

The game was played in Arrowhead Stadium, as this game will be played, but the Chiefs fell to the Texans with a final score of 31-24. I’m here to tell you that I don’t believe the Texans pull one over on the Chiefs twice, and I’ll give you five good reasons why.

DEFENSIVE IMPROVEMENT

At the time of the Texans game, one main complaint was that so much time, attention, and money had been spent on overhauling the defense, only for them to barely look marginally better than last year’s squad.

Through the Chiefs first five games, the defense was not what fans had been promised or what they had been hoping for by week six of the regular season. The defense allowed the Texans to rack up 472 offensive yards with 192 of that coming on the ground (116 yards of that havoc was wrecked by one man, Carlos Hyde). The defense, while they did lay claim to two interceptions, were scorched  for a whopping 280 yards through the air.

Now the defense is a force to be reckoned with and in the case of some games, it has even been whispered that they were the strength of the team. In the last six games, the Chiefs are 6-0, and the Chiefs D has held all but one opponent under 20 points; The one exception was in week 17 against the Chargers, where the Chargers scored 21, and in other games, such as Raiders, Bears, Broncos have been held to under ten points and been absolutely stifled.

The defense has been playing with a new found aggression in all three phases of the defense. Frank Clark, whom some Chiefs fans were beginning to question when we might see a return on him, has been absolutely breathing fire these last six games.

Combine Clark with new addition Terrell Suggs and defensive mainstay Chris Jones and the Chiefs are a nightmare in opposing back fields. Opponents are also forced to consider the skills of safety Tyrann Mathieu AKA the Honey Badger, who has been the biggest addition to this group.

Having been one of the lowest ranked defenses in the league at the time of the Texans game, going into Sunday’s game, the Chiefs defense is now seventh in the league in points allowed, and eighth in the league in pass defense.