Chiefs know that defense wins championships
However, something interesting happens when start looking into the stats. If you check out pro-football-reference.com’s defensive rankings, you will see that 11 of the top 12 slots in team defense are playoff teams. The one playoff team outside of the top 12 is the Washington Redskins, who won the woeful NFC East. At points in this season called the division no one wants to win.
And the only team listed in the top 12 which did not make it to the postseason is the New York Jets. A team that was bounced out of the playoffs on the last week of the season in a revenge game against their old coach.
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That is great news for the Chiefs, who have been a defense led team throughout their resurrection this season. The average number of points scored by a team per game this season was 22.8. K.C. has allowed opponents to score an average 17.9 points per game this season, and a paltry 12.8 points per game over the course of their ten game winning streak. That is a a whopping ten points below league average to end the year.
As those numbers might indicate to you, the Chiefs are near the very top of the defensive rankings. Currently, they sit at third overall in the NFL. And they have allowed only ten more points more than the Seahawks, who lead the league.
And what is more interesting is that this correlation of top defensive performing teams making the postseason does not carry over to the offensive side of the ball as well. The Redskins are the lowest ranked defense at 17th. But the lowest ranked offense to make the playoffs is Houston’s down several spots at 22nd. Denver is also in the lower half of the league at 19th. Only eight of the 12 top ranked offenses are in the postseason.
Though Kansas City’s offense has not been as dominant as its defense this season, it has still been formidable and is ranked ninth in the league. That is higher than the Redskins, Packers, Broncos, and Texans. And that means that in addition to going into this weekend having the better record, and having already beaten the Texans in Houston, K.C. is also ranked higher than their opponent in both points scored and points allowed.
That is a pretty good way to head into a playoff game.
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