For the second week in a row, the Kansas City Chiefs defense allowed an opposing offense to run for more than 175 yards against them.
Two weeks ago it was the Oakland Raiders who ran for 179 yards on 30 carries against them. On Sunday, the Denver Broncos gashed the Chiefs defense on the ground, running the ball 45 times for 214 yards.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid spoke of the defense's performance Sunday night after the game.
"There are things we can work on to get better," Reid said. "That's what we've got to do. Schematically, we will go back through and make sure we are putting the guys in that position where they can make plays.
"I know we have to do a better job tackling. I do know that, I saw that. When you're in a position to make tackles you've got to do that. We've been a good tackling team and the last couple weeks here we haven't done very well."
According to Pro Football Focus, the Chiefs missed 15 tackles against the Broncos on Sunday, which is something Reid says will mean going back to the fundamentals in order to fix.
"When things don't go right, I'm more apt to going back to fundamentals," Reid said. "I think that's where you start and then you make sure schematically you have guys in the right position to do these things. There's some things we can clean up in both areas that we need to take care of but I don't think you make it more complicated than that.
"Then you add intensity into that and then you go play. You can never take that want-to out of it but we've got to clean up some fundamentals."
One area the Chiefs defense was successful was in the red zone, where they held the Broncos to just 1 for 7 in touchdown efficiency, an area the Broncos offense came into the game ranked second in the NFL at 74 percent.
"If you're going to measure effort, you look in those kind of situations," Reid said of the red zone defense. "I felt like the guys were focused in and playing.
"We can fix these problems. You've seen this with some of the good teams in the National Football League where you run into a bump in the road and you work through it. You work through it collectively as coaches and players and you fix it and so that's where we're at right now."
Photos from the Chiefs Week 13 matchup against the Denver Broncos
Reid continued.
"Nobody's going to hand you anything in this game. That's how it works and so you have to work through some things and like I said, as coaches, we have to make sure we're putting the guys in the right position and then the players when in the right position, they've got to make things happen. That's all part of it.
"We have some good character people on this team and so you count on that at this time."
