Hall of Famer’s advice: Beat Chiefs now, not later

Ahead of a Super Bowl rematch on Monday night, Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman said Wednesday that if NFL teams want to beat the 7-0 Chiefs, they should do it now. Because if opponents think they can beat Kansas City later, they’re wrong.

“They’re vulnerable now. Right now is when they’ve been vulnerable,” Aikman said on Pardon the Interruption with Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. “Their defense has been fantastic. I think their defense is really the main reason – hard to say that when they have Patrick Mahomes at quarterback – why they won the Super Bowl last year. They’re playing good again on that side of the ball, defensively.”

That’s bad news for Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers (4-4), who travel to Arrowhead Stadium for Monday Night Football (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC). Mayfield passed for 330 yards, with three touchdowns and a career-best 37 completions in last week’s loss to Atlanta. He isn’t Tom Brady, who led the Bucs to a Super Bowl win over the Chiefs four years ago, but Mayfield is playing at an extremely high level. In fact, on Monday he can become just the fourth player ever to reach 300 passing yards and three touchdown passes over four straight games.

Mayfield leads the league with 21 touchdown passes, four more than No. 2 Lamar Jackson (17), and ranks second with 2,189 passing yards, behind Geno Smith (2,197). The Bucs also lead the NFL in third-down offense, converting 52.5 percent of their attempts, slightly ahead of No. 2 Kansas City (50.5) in that category.

But Kansas City’s defense isn’t New Orleans, Baltimore or Atlanta, the last three teams Mayfield faced. ESPN’s Mina Kimes said Thursday Kansas City’s defense is the reason why the Chiefs are still the best team in football, ahead of the Lions.

“Not just because of their record,” Kimes said Thursday on First Take. “The way I look at it is this: The Chiefs have not only the better defense, I think they have the best defense in the NFL. Consistently now, game after game, really year after year the last few years, they play with the level of physicality, pass rush, that isn’t matched — not by Detroit, not by any other defense as consistently. Also, I think they have the best defensive play-caller maybe in a generation, to be honest. We should start talking about Steve Spagnuolo that way.”

People are not talking about Spagnuolo that way because of what he’s done in early November. The defensive coordinator has earned that reputation for what he’s done in February. And that’s partly why Aikman said the Bucs should take advantage of the opportunity they have Monday night. Beat the Chiefs now, he said.

“In fact, I think they just get stronger and once they get into the postseason, they’ve got more experience than anybody,” Aikman said. “So, I think they’re as vulnerable as they’re going to be and if you’re going to get them, now’s the time. Yet, nobody’s done it.”