KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As far as season openers go, the Kansas City Chiefs had about as good a night as you could ask for.
In their Week 1 31-10 win against the Broncos, the Chiefs defense gave up only 176 total yards and allowed just 61 on the ground. Sometimes it can take weeks for a defense to find its rhythm, but the Chiefs looked well ahead of schedule.
“Guys are meshing well together,” said Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton. “We’re still building this thing week by week. But the foundation is laid, the groundwork. But it’s only been one game. We got 16 more opportunities to grow together.”
The Chiefs’ next opponent is the Colts on Sunday night at Arrowhead. The Colts will surely look to feed running back Jonathan Taylor, who ran for 98 yards and a touchdown last week in a loss to the Ravens.
Taylor has put together four 1,000 yard seasons in his first six years.
“He’s a premier back,” Bolton said. “He’s been one of the best backs in the league since I got here. Good edges, good vision, hands out of the backfield, screen guy. He does it all for them so it’s definitely a challenge. It’s going to be all hands on deck. It’s going to take all 11 of us to keep him bottled up.”
The Chiefs have had some success holding Taylor in check, but Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said Week 2 always presents a unique challenge no matter what happens in Week 1.
“We put it in the rearview,” Spagnuolo said. “Stay humble and hungry. I talked to the guys before the game whether you perform poorly in the first game or you do really well, to me you’re doing one of two things in the second game. You’re either affirming what you are or some teams are going to say last week was an abberation. So it’s either affirmation or aberration and we’re trying affirm what we did last week.”
The Chiefs had four sacks, an interception and fumble recovery last week after struggling to create turnovers last year. But the Chiefs got a boost from rookies Mansoor Delane (interception), R Mason Thomas (sack) and Peter Woods (two tackles).
“We wanted to start the season off the right way,” Bolton said. “Last year obviously we didn’t do that. This year, the mindset was it’s a divisional game and we wanted to start the season 1-0. And some of the young guys came in and played well. We put a lot of pressure on those guys. But the defense set the tone early and for the rest of the game.”
