The Kansas City Chiefs suffered their first loss of the season in a shootout 43-40 to the New England Patriots on Sunday night that highlighted their plethora of issues defensively.

These problems on that side of the ball have put them on a historic pace to allow the most yards in a single season, according to Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk.

In fact, the Chiefs are allowing yardage at a record pace. Kansas City is giving up an average of 468.2 yards per game this season. That’s not just the worst in the NFL this year, it’s on pace to be the worst in NFL history: If Kansas City continues this pace for 16 games, it will give up 7,491 yards this season. The most yards allowed in NFL history was 7,042, set by the Saints in 2012.

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The Chiefs have shown the inability to stop any opposing offense this season ranking 27th with 28.7 points per game allowed while all but one opponent have notched more than 20 points against them. Unsurprisingly this has also pushed them to be last in overall defense and against the pass along with being 28th against the run. This has also seen them give up a league-worst 173 first downs with 104 of those coming the way of a pass.

These issues were put on full display against the Patriots with Tom Brady having his way against them completing 24-of-35 passes for 340 yards with a touchdown while rookie running back Sony Michel tallied up 106 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns. This saw them garner 31 first downs in the contest while racking up 500 total offensive yards in the shootout on Sunday night.

Kansas City has some major issues defensively that could damper their chances toward truly competing for a Super Bowl and overshadow the brilliance of the play from their explosive offense led by second-year quarterback Patrick Mahomes. This is something that the team must figure in order to have a true chance of reaching those aspirations this season.

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