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BALTIMORE — A black T-shirt was passing though the Kansas City Chiefs locker room faster than the cigar smoke following their fourth AFC championship in six years. The shirt had defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s face on it, with many of his players posing to get a picture with the defensive mastermind that sent the Chiefs to the Super Bowl — again.
Chiefs defensive back Justin Reid made sure the cameras saw the shirt with the four words attached to it: “In Spags We Trust.”
“Damn, that’s the boss bro. That’s the mastermind behind everything you see,” Chiefs defensive back Trent McDuffie said as his eyes lit up when Spags was mentioned. “I feel like everybody on this defense, shoot everyone in the building, really respects that man. He’s a generally good dude.
“I got a lot of love for him and he got a lot of love for us. He allows us to go out there and play.”
The Chiefs defense certainly looks like a carbon copy of Spagnuolo’s championship defenses with the New York Giants, or Jim Johnson’s dominant defenses with the Philadelphia Eagles (Spagnuolo was Johnson’s protégé in Philadelphia). The Chiefs held the Baltimore Ravens to a season-low 10 points and a season-high three turnovers in Sunday’s win.
Spagnulo displayed a vintage “Spags” performance, blitzing the Ravens 44% of the time. In the first two playoff games between the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills, the Chiefs blitzed a total of 20 times. On Sunday, Kansas City blitzed on 21 plays.
Lamar Jackson was 8 of 18 for 125 yards and a touchdown when blitzed, being sacked one time and compiling an 86.6 rating. The touchdown pass was Jackson avoiding a sack and finding an open Zay Flowers in the end zone for the Ravens’ only touchdown of the game.
When the Chiefs rushed six or more? Jackson was 1 of 5 for 5 yards, averaging 2.2 yards per attempt.
“It was one of many things Coach Spags was dialing up,”…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2024-afc-championship-steve-spagnuolo-makes-all-the-right-moves-as-chiefs-defense-snuffs-out-ravens/
Author : Jeff Kerr
Publish date : 2024-01-29 02:43:50
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