Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid spoke to media on Wednesday, 11/19/25 about the team's sense of urgency and whether previous long seasons have produced a level of fatigue. By Dominick Williams
Much of this week’s focus has been centered on the Chiefs’ offense.
Perhaps that’s to be expected after Kansas City finished last Sunday’s 22-19 road loss to the Denver Broncos with back-to-back three-and-outs.
And while it’s fair to say that the offense may be in need of a deep breath, the most important key to a Chiefs win against the Indianapolis Colts this weekend lives on the other side of the ball.
Jonathan Taylor isn’t just the league’s best running back — he’s in the MVP conversation, too. The Colts’ featured back leads the league with 1,139 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns on just 189 carries — a staggering 6.0 yards per attempt.
“(Defensive line coach) Joe Cullen (and I) start off with the run meeting in the morning,” Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said on Thursday. “(Cullen) brought up the point that I always say: ‘We’ve been faced with this challenge a lot, this year (and) other years.’”
Cullen is right, especially when you look at the first six games of the season. In early matchups, the Chiefs held Philadelphia’s Saquon Barkley, Baltimore’s Derrick Henry and Detroit’s Jahmyr Gibbs — three of the league’s elite — under 100 rushing yards apiece.
The only running back who really changed a game against Kansas City this season was Buffalo’s James Cook in Week 9. Cook rushed 27 times for 114 yards, helping the Bills control the game after taking a lead late in the second quarter — one they never surrendered.
Spagnuolo knows his run defense can’t afford a repeat performance like that against Indianapolis.
“When our guys as a unit – as a group put their mind to playing good run defense, I believe we can do that,” he said. “It’s when we get out of wack a little bit and see something that’s not there or take a chance here so hopefully, we play good solid group unit run defense. We’re going to need to do that again.”
Taylor is most dangerous when he breaks through to the second level, and so that is where the Chiefs’ front four will come in. Kansas City’s defensive linemen will need to stay disciplined, penetrating the line where they can.
“He’s as good a back as there is,” Cullen said of Taylor. “He’s a really unique back where sometimes some big backs get downhill fast and have one cut and that’s kind of what they do. He can jump cut as you say, he can get from point A to point B as fast as anyone in the league. He can make you miss; he can run you over, and he has home run speed. He has breakaway speed.”
Should Taylor reach the second level, linebacker Nick Bolton becomes the next line of defense. He leads the Chiefs with 20 run stops, per Pro Football Focus.
“It’s going to be a great challenge for us,” Bolton said. “They do a great job mixing up run plays. The O-line’s been outstanding — especially, their left side, our right side. They’ve been playing great football. So it’s a challenge for us to try to get downhill, create some negative plays. Our D-line starts the tone for us, and then linebackers flow around and make plays.”
And this is why stopping Taylor is more critical than tweaks the Chiefs might make offensively. If the Colts succeed in establishing the run early, it unlocks the play-action game for Daniel Jones — who ranks fifth in the NFL in play-action passing yardage (693).
“They do a great job of mixing up interior runs and marrying them off their fits,” Bolton said. “(They) swap behind the line of scrimmage and finding ways to get (tight end Tyler Warren) the ball out in space. They do a great job using their players to the best of their ability. It’s definitely going to be a challenge for us to stop the run early and give ourselves a chance to pass in second-and-longs.”
As Bolton well understands, if the Colts get all of that rolling, it won’t matter if Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense put up 30.
The Colts lead the league with 32.1 points per game off this exact formula.