Kansas City Chiefs: How far can they go?

The Kansas City Chiefs won their eighth straight game on Sunday when they beat the Baltimore Ravens 34-14. While KC let the injury depleted Ravens hang around longer than they should have, a 20 point road win in the NFL is always impressive. While the Chiefs may not be a perfect team they have reached a point where their accomplishments simply cannot be dismissed. Easy schedule or not, teams simply don’t win eight consecutive games very often in today’s NFL and their combined score of 238-98 (or an average score of about 30-12) over that span shows just how dominant they’ve been. So it begs the question….

Just how good are the 2015 Kansas City Chiefs?

A team that wins eight games in a row is a good team, period. A team that beats teams by an average score of 30-12 during that eight game win streak is a good team, period. However, the fact that the eight game win streak has come against teams with a combined record of 43-54 has many questioning just how good KC is. While that is a fair question to ask, think of it this way, the teams KC have beaten during this win streak have a winning percentage of 44.3%. That means over an eight game span those teams should win 3.54 games. Against the Chiefs they didn’t win a single time.

I also thought I’d take a quick look at the offenses and defenses that they’ve been facing during this winning streak, starting with the defense. During the eight game winning streak the defenses they’ve faced have allowed an average of 23.7 points per game on the season. Against the Chiefs they are allowing 29.8. So despite their “soft” schedule and the criticisms people have had about the offense at times, the Chiefs have still been scoring almost a touchdown more per game than these defenses have been allowing the rest of the season.

When you look at the offenses they’ve been facing its even more impressive. The teams the Chiefs have beaten during the streak are scoring an average of 22.2 points per game on the season. Against the Chiefs they are only scoring 12.3 points per game. That means KC is allowing almost 10 fewer point per game against these teams than they normally average. That’s impressive no matter how you look at it.

The final thing I hear a lot is that the Chiefs have faced some really bad quarterbacks during this streak. I’m not going to argue that they haven’t had some favorable QB match ups, but again it is interesting to see how these quarterback fair against the Chiefs compared to the rest of the NFL.

The combined stats of Philip Rivers, Derek Carr, Matt Stafford, Tyrod Taylor, Peyton Manning, Brock Osweiler, Jimmy Clausen, and Landry Jones on the year include:

62.9% completion percentage, 7.2 yards per attempt, 122 TDs, and 69 INTs

Against the Chiefs those same QBs have put up the following numbers:

56.9% completion percentage, 6.1 yards per attempt, 10 TDs, and 16 INTs

So yes, its true that the Chiefs haven’t faced the greatest string of quarterbacks during their winning streak. However, KC is still holding those quarterbacks well below their average numbers.

What all this number crunching points to is that the Chiefs are, without a doubt, a good team. They aren’t just the product of an easy schedule. They’ve been executing above the league average on both sides of the ball against the teams that they have been facing. We won’t know just how good they are until they reach the playoffs and go head to head against the best teams in the AFC. That having been said, you can make a case for the Chiefs now being one of the best teams in the AFC. Most national pundits would put the New England Patriots at the top of the conference, but after that things are pretty open. The only other teams with a better record than the Chiefs in the AFC are the Broncos and the Bengals and both of those teams have quarterback questions now.

If the Chiefs can hold onto the top wildcard spot they would currently play at Houston. The 7-7 Texans have possibly the worst QB situation of any playoff contender with Ryan Mallet kicked off the team, Brian Hoyer battling concussion issues, TJ Yates now out for the season, and the underwhelming Brandon Weeden trying to hold down the fort. Plus, the Chiefs have already won in Houston back in week one of the season. At this point not only are the Chiefs a favorite to MAKE the playoffs, it looks like they might be a favorite to finally advance and break their playoff losing streak.

In my opinion, that would make this season a HUGE success. To go from 1-5 to winning a playoff game (not that its guaranteed) would be one of the biggest turnarounds in NFL history. If KC could get out of the first round who knows what could happen. Then again, with the Broncos losing to the Steelers the AFC West could still be in play for KC. With the Chiefs and Broncos splitting the head to head match up it favors KC since they have the better division and conference records. If the Chiefs win out and Denver were to drop next week’s game against the Bengals the Chiefs would come away the division champs. That would mean that they would host a first round game against either the Jets or Steelers. While the Jets don’t scare me, I think I’d rather play at Houston than host the Steelers again but with a healthy Ben Roethlisberger this time. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how things play out.

So what do you think Addicts? Just how good are these 2015 Chiefs? Are you now expecting the playoffs? A playoff win? Can they make a run in the AFC this season? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!