KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Midway through the fourth quarter on Thursday night, the Chiefs’ defense had so thoroughly harassed and stifled Denver that it was time to look it up: The last time they’d shut out an opponent in a regular-season game was 2011, and the last and only time they’d shut out the Broncos was in 1970.
While the hosts weren’t quite able to ladle that indignity over the Broncos in a 19-8 victory that became their astounding 16th straight win in the series, the distinction was nominal.
“Our defense was incredible tonight,” coach Andy Reid said. “As they have been.”
That wasn’t hyperbole, either.
For starters, the Chiefs straitjacketed the Broncos to 197 yards and forced three turnovers — including just their second and third interceptions of the season.
They sacked Russell Wilson four times and deflected as many passes. That included one by Willie Gay that Justin Reid intercepted and two by George Karlaftis — who as of halftime got his hands on as many Denver passes as any Broncos receiver had.
Yes, Denver averted the embarrassment of going scoreless with 6 minutes, 7 seconds remaining, and the Broncos (1-5) even made it a one-score game by converting the two-point conversion.
But gratifying as the rare feat might have been for the Chiefs (5-1), the most substantial takeaway wasn’t the keepsake that eluded them, but the further affirmation of what this defense appears to be.
Real, for sure, and perhaps even spectacular: As of Thursday night, the Chiefs were second in the NFL in points allowed (14.7 a game) only to San Francisco (13.6).
For that matter, in terms of points actually allowed by the defense (Detroit scored a touchdown on a pick-six) the Chiefs actually are atop the league (13.5).
Call that a technicality, or call it more precise, but either way it’s quite a development.
So far, anyway.
As he considered all that’s made it crystallize far earlier than most editions of Steve Spagnuolo’s complex defenses, safety Justin Reid spoke of the work in the trenches — from where defensive tackle Chris Jones unleashed a sack in a fifth straight game — and overall continuity, buy-in and trust.
Then he smiled and said, “Man, just magic happens out there on the field.”
Now, to be sure, the Broncos aren’t good. But their offense had been averaging 24.2 points a game.
And with the Chiefs’ offense continuing to short-circuit in a variety of ways, it was a clutch night for the other side of the ball to hold a team to 10 or fewer points for the third time this season and otherwise show what it’s about.
“Luckily for us,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said, “our defense is playing great.”
With the Chiefs generating just one touchdown in five red-zone trips, that was more a necessity than a luxury.
At least to this point, though, it’s also become an increasingly reliable part of this team’s identity — a point it’s out to keep proving.
“I think it shows just our grit, you know?” cornerback Trent McDuffie said. “Again, offense didn’t go put up 40 points like everybody thought they were (going to), and sometimes that’s OK. We always tell Pat, ‘We got you.’
“I always say this defense is trying to really elevate and change this (stigma) about this team, that this is a real defense.”
Much as it had flashed that most of the season, it added a missing dimension on Thursday. The Chiefs had forced only six turnovers in their first five games, leaving them with a minus-two ratio.
Nick Bolton and Reid’s interceptions doubled their pickoffs for the season.
“Huge, huge,” Reid said. “Every defense that wants to be dominant, they’ve got to take the ball away. You can’t be a dominant defense without taking the ball away.”
In certain ways, Reid is emblematic of the more rapid coalescence of a defense that through six games last season (seven, for that matter) never gave up fewer than 20 points.
Two seasons ago, the Chiefs had given up 176 points through six games — exactly double their total through six games this season.
In his second season here after four in Houston, Reid appears at once quicker and stronger and had his finest game with the Chiefs on Thursday. Most notably, he set the tone with a fourth-down sack of Wilson on Denver’s first drive and in the third quarter grabbed his first interception since he arrived in Kansas City.
As it happens, Reid said a couple coaches “spoke it into existence” by telling him this was going to be the day. Even so, he felt his eyes get big when the “low-hanging fruit” fluttered his way — a breakthrough that further reflects the way he’s grown into the system over the last year.
“It’s night and day; I feel like an entirely different player,” he said. “I feel like I’m playing fast and free; I’m not out there thinking.”
He’s not the only one who can cut loose more now. McDuffie, an emerging star in his second season, noted the simple but crucial point that now “a lot of guys understand where guys are going to be.”
“And when you’ve got chemistry like that, where you know what he’s thinking and what he’s thinking, we’re able to play so much faster,” he said. “And I think that’s showing out right now on the field.”
Showing enough that the Chiefs may well have had themselves the trophy of a shutout if not for an absurd roughing the passer call on Mike Edwards — part of the modern game, but ridiculous nonetheless.
But they didn’t need the shutout to keep making an ongoing statement that this is a more balanced team to this point of the season than we’ve seen in the Mahomes Era.
Now, that’s in part because the offense hasn’t really found itself yet. And it’s also in part because of who they’ve played: Through six games, the Chiefs have faced only one top-10 scoring offense.
They’ve got five of those matchups ahead, including the first of two games with the L.A. Chargers next week and the game against the scoring-leader Miami Dolphins in Germany next month.
Those games will more accurately define this defense, to be sure.
But considering what we’ve seen so far, and how Spagnuolo’s defenses consistently have improved late in the season, those games will be proving grounds for the opponents, too.
