Yesterday, I gave you five good stats from the Kansas City Chiefs win over the Washington Redskins on Sunday.
Today, I'm giving you five stats that will need to be reversed if the Chiefs are going to continue winning.
We're talking about:
- Rushing touchdowns
- Fumbles
- Big plays
- Field position
- Protecting Matt Cassel
All this, after the jump.
0 rushing touchdowns
I know the Chiefs didn't score any touchdowns on Sunday but I wanted to specifically point out the lack of a rushing touchdown. Why? Because the Chiefs don't have a rushing touchdown this season. I remember one of the CBS commentators mention this stat and how only three or four other teams in the league don't have a rushing TD either.
The passing game can get messy by the goal line with so little room to work. At some point, and I'm not sure when/if this is going to happen, the Chiefs need to be able to call a running play on the goal line and have a healthy level of confidence that it's going to succeed.
Part of this issue is Larry Johnson as well. Goal line rushes aside, LJ just isn't breaking off a 10-15 yard run near the goal line for a TD. A loss of speed and the lack of the ability quickly cut back won't allow Larry to beat very many defenses on his own.
The solution? I'm not sure. More Jamaal Charles? The ubiquitous answer to everything - fix the offensive line?
Two fumbles
The Chiefs have twelve fumbles on the season. They've only lost two of them but a two fumble a game average? That's just asking to lose.
Last season's Chiefs made it to Week 10 before hitting the twelve fumble mark. The 2007 Chiefs made it to Week 9 before they hit twelve fumbles.
My point in bringing up those two examples is to show that Todd Haley needs to get this fumbling problem fixed now. Anecdotally speaking, I think we all know that the Chiefs could have easily lost more than just two of the twelve fumbles this season.
Great field position, no touchdowns
The Chiefs average starting yard line on Sunday was their own 37-yard line, which is a very advantageous stat. Of course, we had zero touchdowns to show for that. We can thank our great field position for the last two Succop field goals. The Chiefs got the ball on the Redskins 36 and 37-yard lines to get those six points.
So we won the field position battle by a mile but only scored field goals. That doesn't bode well for the future.
Giving up the big play
Without S Mike Brown staying with Clinton Portis on that 78-yard run, the Chiefs may not have won the football game.
The Chiefs had issues with giving up the big play against Dallas too, as I'm sure you remember. With less than two minutes to go against Oakland, on 3rd and 15, the Chiefs gave up a 28-yard pass to Todd Watkins.
My point is that the Chiefs are going to be involved in close games this season, against good and bad opponents. When you can point to one or two plays that made the difference in a loss, it's heartbreaking.
5 sacks, 10 QB hurries
Matt Cassel is the second most sacked quarterback in the league with 19 sacks on the season. He's behind Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers who has been sacked 25 times. That Jared Allen guy had something to do with that.
I'm not going to beat a dead horse here and talk in detail about the offensive line. We know it needs fixing.
Receiver drops
And a last minute honorable mention, the Chiefs dropped six passes on Sunday. Bowe had at least two of these drops.
Check out the stats here and let us know what you didn't like from Sunday's game.