The final stats from the Chiefs' 36-35 loss to the Ravens on Sunday showed some ugly numbers for the Kansas City defense.
Baltimore ran for 251 yards, averaging 6.1 yards per carry. It might be too early to call it a trend, but through two games, the Chiefs rushing defense ranks last in the NFL in yards allowed (404), yards per attempt (6.0) and rushing touchdowns allowed (seven).
The Chiefs ranked 27th in scoring defense and 32nd in total defense following Sunday's games.
But Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Monday he believes the defense will improve.
"When two good teams play each other these mistakes just get amplified and magnified and .... we're sitting here with the missed tackles, more so in the first half than the second half but enough there," Reid said at a news conference. "And shedding blocks, fundamental things that we are better than that. But we've got to do it.
"And so, we'll go back to the drawing board here on Wednesday, and work on these things. These are things we can control. We've just got to get in the right mindset to do so. I mentioned this (Sunday) night, that's my responsibility as the head football coach. I've got to make sure that our team is playing better than what it is right now, and we'll get there."
Reid said he saw improvement from the defense in the second half, but said the unit can get better at narrowing space for runners, converging on a ball carrier, shedding blocks and wrapping up opponents.
These things need to be part of the Chiefs defensive players' mentality.
Reid also addressed the Chiefs' difficulty in stopping teams in the red zone. Through the first two games, opponents have moved the ball inside the Chiefs' 20-yard line eight times. All eight of those drives ended with a touchdown.
The Chiefs are worse than a year ago when they allowed a touchdown on 72.9% of opponents' trips to the red zone, according to TeamRankings.com.
"Spags (defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) spent a lot of time in the offseason with that, we worked it a ton in camp and we haven't had the results here yet," Reid said. "We'll keep pounding that out until we get it right.
"It's one of those things, everything gets magnified when you're in the red zone, whether it's good or bad. If you're not tackling on the field then it doesn't happen in the red zone. If you're not getting off blocks on the field then it's gonna get magnified in the red zone. Everything's a little bit faster and all your strengths and weaknesses get magnified so you've got to make sure that you get these fundamentals down and take care of it."
While it's been a bleak start for the Chiefs defense, one sliver of hope. Their remaining 15 opponents aren't as strong running the ball. Cleveland and Baltimore were both in the top three in rushing a year ago.
Reid believes in the Chiefs defense, too, as they prepare for this Sunday's game against the Chargers, who are fifth in total offense.
"We've got the right chemistry in the locker room," Reid said. "We've got good players. And we've got to make sure that we step up our game. We've got a good Chargers team coming in here that is explosive really on both sides of the ball. so we got to make sure that we take care of business."
