Sunday saw the Kansas City Chiefs’ eight-game winning streak snapped at the hands of the Cincinnati Bengals. At the center of that controversial game was the defensive play-calling by Steve Spagnuolo, which allowed Tee Higgins, Ja’Maar Chase, and Tyler Boyd to absolutely carve up the Chiefs’ secondary.

“Hindsight’s 20/20, right? That’s always the case,” Spagnuolo told reporters on Wednesday. “The thinking was that we were addressing that play as a third-and-6 because it was at the 41-yard line — and any additional yardage was going to make it a field goal for them. It’s a tie ballgame — don’t want to give up a field goal to them — so the idea is to get an incomplete pass. And again: hindsight’s 20/20, but I think all the guys are comfortable with trying to get them to punt the football on fourth-and-27.”

Arrowheadpride.com’s Pete Sweeney then reminded “Spags” that he has often spoken about limiting explosive plays — and wondered if such a poor defensive performance coming right before the playoffs could help wake up the team for future games.

“Really good point,” chuckled Spagnuolo. ”We don’t want it to happen — but the context you just put it in is probably a good one. If that means that we’re not going to [have explosive plays against us] from here until we’re done playing, then I’m OK with it. But it was hard to see — and take. That had not bitten us for a long time; our guys have done a nice job.”

Currently, the Chiefs rank twenty-sixth in overall defense (363.8 yards per game), 17th in rushing defense (113.0), 12th in passing defense (223.5), and are tied for 13th in scoring defense (21.3 points per game). This week, they face off against Drew Lock and the Denver Broncos, who currently rank 19th in overall offense (328.4 yards per game), 14th in rushing (114.6), 19th in passing (213.8), 23rd in scoring offense (19.4 points per game).

It also should be noted that a win plus a Titans loss puts the Chiefs as the top seed in the AFC.

So they better bring their best defense this week.