Four out of six games without a sack of the opposing quarterback. An acknowledged elite receiver in Jaxon Smith-Njigba who torched the Kansas City Chiefs for 150 yards.

Those are two glaring takeaways from Kansas City’s 20-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, issues the Chiefs will look to diagnose and fix before Sunday’s road game against the Denver Broncos.

Steve Spagnuolo isn’t panicking.

The search for the sack

For now, Spagnuolo is choosing to focus on what matters most to him — points allowed. Spagnuolo referenced that statistic three times during his usual Thursday news conference.

“Everybody wants sacks because it’s great, and it helps us and all that,” Spagnuolo said. “I’m more interested in the points on the board. Would it help us to keep points down by getting (sacks)? Probably. But if we can do it otherwise, I’m OK with that too. I’m not disagreeing with how everybody’s feeling here. I knew the questions were coming.

“But I still go back to that, and I just want to keep playing good unit defense and giving the team a chance to win the game because we’ve kept the point total low. That, to me, is the most important thing.”

Spagnuolo’s point is fair, as his defense ranks second in the NFL in points allowed per game (17.2), behind only the Minnesota Vikings. Kansas City’s five yards allowed per play ranks in a five-way tie for seventh.

The Chiefs have recorded at least a sack in only two games — four against the Broncos and another four against the Los Angeles Chargers — but, according to SumerSports, their pressure rate is ninth in the NFL at 41.7%.

So Kansas City is getting to the quarterback, but its inability to finish can prove pivotal in a close game. Take last week, for example, with the Seahawks driving in Chiefs territory in the second quarter, already leading 3-0.

With the Chiefs in zone coverage, Felix Anudike-Uzomah’s blocker disengaged, allowing the defensive end a free run at Sam Darnold. The pressure pushed Darnold toward George Karlaftis, but the quarterback cut away and Karlaftis whiffed. Chris Jones couldn’t catch up, and instead of ending with a long field-goal attempt, the drive eventually produced a touchdown.

It was a bad play but good preparation for this week, as Denver quarterback Bo Nix is an able and willing runner.

“When we play these elite athletic quarterbacks — and I put Bo in that group — we do some things differently up front,” Spagnuolo said. “And we’ll do that (Sunday).”

Even without the sacks, the Chiefs had a chance to remain in the game thanks to their red-zone defense. The offensive inefficiency and Harrison Butker’s two missed field goals made that task more difficult.

The Seahawks failed to score a touchdown on three red-zone trips, an impressive feat for Kansas City, considering its defense allowed Seattle to convert 11 of 16 third downs.

“When we had 13 points up there with eight minutes left, we’re in the ballgame,” Spagnuolo said. “It was because we played really good in the red zone. I don’t think we can always bank on that. I’d like to win more of those third downs and get them to punt it. That didn’t happen in this game, and fortunately for us, we found a way to stop them in the red zone.”

Sacks remain a concern, but perhaps more troubling is Kansas City’s 41.9% third-down conversion rate allowed, which ranks 20th in the NFL.

JSN’s explosion

Smith-Njigba has made a habit of delivering production like Sunday’s against nearly everybody, and he was undoubtedly aided by Darnold’s best outing since Week 2.

Conceding Smith-Njigba’s rare talent, Spagnuolo said he appreciated how his players responded despite the receiver’s impressive performance.

“No. 11 is going to win some,” Spagnuolo said. “He actually had a completion when we had him doubled on one of them. The other ones, they didn’t go to him, but we didn’t double the whole game, so he obviously caught some.

“I said this to the guys on Tuesday — ‘Listen, he had nine catches and whatever yardage he had, so he had a really good game.’ When he had those nine catches, there was still only 13 points on the board, so I looked at that as a positive.”

When asked about cornerback L’Jarius Sneed’s rough outing, Spagnuolo referenced a bad week of practice and an ineffective initial plan for doubling Smith-Njigba.

By game’s end, Smith-Njigba had caught passes against six different Chiefs defenders, including three against Sneed and two against rookie Mansoor Delane, who showed tight coverage even on the perfectly thrown touchdown.

“I learned something about Mansoor in the game,” Spagnuolo said. “I mean, that one, I went right over to him. I said, ‘Look, I shouldn’t have put you in that situation.’ I just put it on myself. And he said, ‘Oh no, no.’ I won’t let you say the words we all use because it’s on the sideline, but it was like, ‘No, put me on him again.’

“I kind of like that and kind of shared that with the rest of the unit because I wanted them to know the kind of guy that they had out there.”

Delane confirmed as much when he spoke to media members on Wednesday.

“I told Coach Spags, ‘Man, put me in those tough situations,’” he said. “I’m not asking for cloud (coverage). I’m not asking for Cover 2. Like, go back out there and play man (coverage). And that’s what we did.

“A lot of teams are kind of scared to do that, but I feel like we didn’t shy away from it. We learned from it, but at the same time, it’s going to be times in my career that I’m on a better hand of that stick, and I’m definitely going to learn from that.”

When healthy and able, Delane has largely lived up to the hype that comes with being the sixth overall pick, and the Chiefs could use him Sunday. But it may be Kristian Fulton after Delane missed practice Thursday with a familiar shoulder designation.

If the second half against Seattle is any indication, Spagnuolo may favor the versatile Chris Roland-Wallace over Sneed in the slot.

So how do we gauge the Chiefs’ defense?

Considering Kansas City’s early-season schedule — four out of their five wins came against teams under .500 —and its third-down struggles, the truth about this defense probably lies somewhere just inside the league’s top 10.

There are absolutely areas that need improvement, but the numbers make for a persuasive story. Spagnuolo’s defense has given Kansas City a chance to win all six games.

Shore up the third-down defense and add a couple of sacks per game, and perhaps Kansas City’s ceiling rises from somewhere among the top 10 to that of the elite.

This story was originally published October 30, 2026 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Chiefs’ Steve Spagnuolo explains why sacks don’t tell the whole story."