The Chiefs are 4-0, but the defense has not exactly been living in the splash-play lane.
Kansas City enters Sunday’s home game against the Los Angeles Chargers tied for last in the NFL with four sacks. The Chiefs’ seven takeaways are tied for 10th, a number that says they’ve made plays - just not nearly enough of the game-flipping kind they want to become routine.
That is why the final defensive snap from Week 4 stood out so much. With Kansas City ahead by three at Las Vegas, the Raiders took over at the Chiefs’ 48 with 10 seconds left and no timeouts. A sideline throw to set up a field goal was the obvious move, but George Karlaftis shut it down.
Karlaftis never got the Chiefs’ first sack since the opener against Denver, but he got enough of Kirk Cousins’ right arm to turn the pass into a wobble. Xavier Nwankpa picked it off, and that was that.
Karlaftis would have preferred a sack, sure. But the result fit the larger goal.
“Ultimately, for us as a front, we’ve got to get the quarterback on the ground by any means necessary,” Karlaftis said. “We’ve got to do a better job of that.
We’ve been getting hits, hurries, pressures. At the end of the day we just have to get the quarterback down.”
It wasn’t even the first time that kind of pressure led directly to a big play. A week earlier in Miami, Karlaftis came up with the first interception of his career after Chris Jones deflected a Malik Willis pass late in the Chiefs’ two-touchdown win.
No sack there, either. Still, it was another example of the rush affecting the quarterback in a way that changed the game.
Safety Alohi Gilman thinks the turnovers will keep coming if the defense stays locked into what it has already been doing.
“I think we’re in the right spots,” Gilman said. “And we have the right opportunities.
It’s about continuing to buy into game plans and finding those ways. ... It’s also a team defense thing as well.
It takes all 11 guys.”
Gilman knows what takeaways look like from his time with the Chargers. In six seasons in Los Angeles, he logged five interceptions, forced five fumbles and recovered six. He was also in the same draft class as Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, who has had some success against Kansas City by winning four of 11 starts.
“Seeing him grow and do the things he’s been doing as a player is awesome to see,” Gilman said.
The bigger picture, though, is pretty clear: Herbert and the Chargers are 0-5, and that gives the Chiefs a chance to keep sharpening the part of their defense that has lagged behind the rest. Los Angeles has allowed 17 sacks, tied for 30th, and its 13 giveaways rank last.
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