Back from their bye, Chiefs look for consistency

Nov 16, 2017 - 5:43 PM KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Nine games into the season and the true identity of the Kansas City Chiefs remains elusive even to head coach Andy Reid, who hopes to see a more consistent brand of football during the second half of the season, starting with this weekend's visit to the New York Giants.

"We see things that we need to get better at," Reid said. "We see the things that we're good at and we see the things that we're not good at. You're always trying to get better in these different areas. That's really where your energy goes."

The Chiefs red-hot offensive start in the team's 5-0 start masked an inconsistent defense that slowly revealed its true colors while losing three of four games heading into the bye week. One week, the team's run defense would falter, yielding 194 yards on the ground in Week 6 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Four days later, the secondary yielded 417 passing yards to the Oakland Raiders. The defense surrendered a season-best 88 yards rushing in that game.

"If you put everything into the run then it's going to be too full," Reid said. "You've got the run, you've got the pass game -- you've got to do both. That's what we're attempting to do, be better at all positions and all phases."

The result of the inconsistency, however, shows a defense ranking 29th against the run with 131.1 yards allowed per game while ranking 28th against the pass, giving up 259.2 yards per game. Kansas City's defense shows the ability to take away one facet of the game, but never both at the same time.

That trend continued heading into the bye week. The Chiefs limited Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott to 93 yards rushing on 27 carries, which Reid takes as a positive sign. But Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott tallied 249 yards passing along with 27 yards on scrambles, and he contributed three total touchdowns.

"The consistency is what we need on both sides of the ball and special teams," Reid said. "We've got to make sure that we're doing a better job at that in those areas."

The Giants might serve as just the elixir the Chiefs' defense needs. Head coach Bob McAdoo's squad owns just one win in nine tries on the season, and he said he delivered a brutally honest message to his team this week.

"We had a meeting, showed some clips and were honest and open and moved on," McAdoo said.

The Giants rank in the bottom quarter of the league in many offensive categories. They average just 16.7 points per game, tied for 28th in the league, and average 89.8 yards rushing, which ranks 25th.

Reid said he's taking nothing for granted, however, especially with his own struggling defense coming off back-to-back road losses.

"We've got things that we need to take care of, clean up as coaches and players," Reid said. "So that's what we're going to do. We're studying them and at the same time we've got to make sure we look in the mirror first and take care of our business. And that's where you start."

SERIES HISTORY: 14th regular-season meeting. Giants lead series, 10-3. The Giants have owned the Chiefs at home, winning all six games between the clubs and winning five of them by at least double-digit margins. The Chiefs won the last meeting between the two teams, a 31-7 romp at Arrowhead Stadium during head coach Andy Reid's first season in Kansas City. Reid holds a 16-13 record as a head coach against the Giants, including wins in eight of his last 10 games against New York.

--The moment guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif felt his Chiefs teammate Mitchell Schwartz pulled to the ground and contacted his left knee, the aspiring doctor made an immediate diagnosis on the field before trainers even arrived.

"I heard a pop in my MCL," Duvernay-Tardif told the team's training staff upon their arrival at his side.

"Classic injury where you get a stress on the exterior of your knee and the anterior of your MCL gets all the load," Duvernay-Tardif said. "It's unfortunate, but at the same time in the trenches that's a common injury."

Duvernay-Tardif hails from Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal. He played college football at McGill University in Montreal, and continues studying medicine at McGill during the offseason. He's on track to graduate next May, adding medical doctor to his resume that also includes NFL offensive lineman.

That experience allowed the 6-foot-5, 321-pound right guard to make the accurate diagnosis.

"I actually kind of knew exactly what I had when I injured myself on the field," Duvernay-Tardif said.

The use of his medical knowledge, however, did not end with his self-diagnosis.

"I think that of course the medical background helps you understand why you're doing certain exercises in rehab," Duvernay-Tardif said. "Like why is it important to get your glute activated every day? Because that's the first muscle that kind of goes away as the injury extended."

Duvernay-Tardif missed four games before returning for Kansas City's Week 9 loss at Dallas. He believes getting back on the field before the bye week helped him prepare for the season's closing stretch.

"I think for me going back out there against Dallas and seeing I was good to go, and then going on the bye week relaxed, regroup," he explained, "look at some tape of the first couple of games of the season trying to learn about what was going well in the first four games and try to learn from those few clips I looked at and apply that for the next couple of weeks. I think it was a great timing."

--Linebacker Tamba Hali spent the first eight weeks of the season on the physically unable to perform list before returning for the team's Week 9 loss at Dallas. He played 23 snaps in his return, picking up a tackle and showing flashes of his pass-rush prowess.

Hali did not practice during the team's return to workouts on Wednesday, which Reid said was both by design and a result of swelling on the veteran's knee after his season debut.

"A little bit of each," Reid said when asked if the day off results from the team's plan or a medical setback. "His knee swelled up a little bit."

Hali generally practiced only on Fridays last season to save wear and tear on his knee. The team kept Hali on the PUP list the first half of the season to keep him fresh for the season's stretch drive. Reid said how Hali's knee would handle returning to action was of concern before activating him back to the roster.

"But we kind of anticipated that, that's what it's done over the last few years, so we're just backing up on it and letting it calm down," Reid said. "Then we'll go from there."

NOTES: LB Dee Ford did not practice Wednesday, remaining on the sidelines with a back issue that has plagued him much of the season and kept him out of three games, including the team's last game against Dallas in Week 9. Ford has just 1.5 sacks and eight tackles in six games this season. ... LB Tamba Hali, who made his season debut in the team's last game against Dallas, did not practice Wednesday. Head coach Andy Reid said Hali continues to suffer swelling on his knee that limited his practice workload in recent seasons. ... DE Allen Bailey did not practice Wednesday. He remains on the sideline with a sprained knee suffered in Week 9 against Dallas. His timetable for return remains unclear. ... WR Albert Wilson did not practice Wednesday after straining his hamstring in Week 8 against Denver. Wilson's absence leaves the Chiefs with just four healthy wide receivers. The club did add former New England Patriots WR Devin Lucien to the practice squad, where he joins rookie receivers Marcus Kemp and Gehrig Dieter. ... LB Dadi Nicolas returned to practice Wednesday for the first time since rupturing his patella tendon in the season finale against the Chargers last season. Nicolas remained on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list since the beginning of training camp. The move allows the second-year linebacker to practice for up to three weeks before the team must return Nicolas to the active roster, keep him on season-ending PUP or put him on waivers. This week marked the last week to return to practice or shut him down for the season.