Todd Haley's Quarter System Shows Chiefs Improvement

“We’re still what we are but we’re 2-0 in the third quarter of the season."   -Todd Haley

As many of you know, Kansas City Chiefs head coach Todd Haley likes to break the season up into quarters.  16 games, there are four quarters.  It's a Parcells way of thinking and was generally pretty frustrating to fans talking about quarters when the Chiefs started the first one winless.

However, when you take do break the season down into quarters, as Kent Babb pointed out, you can see progress.

So far the Chiefs quarters go 0-4, 1-3 and now, at worst, 2-2 two games into the third quarter.

The Chiefs offense has been the biggest improvement in the last few games.  Take a look at this chart that breaks down the average yards per game for both the offense and defense as well as the average margin of point differential.

It's interesting to note that the defense has been inconsistent in their yardage given up because the worst quarter for the defense was also their best quarter in creating turnovers (5).  They also dropped the number of first downs allowed from 85 in the first quarter to 65 in the second, yet the yards don't reflect that.

Stats don't always tell the story. 

The last two games the Chiefs have had a turnover in the closing minutes that helped preserve victory or prolong the game.  There's not a stat for "timely turnovers" but I think that's what we would need to properly measure this defense. 

It's big plays here and there.  One mental lapse leading to two or three more on the same drive.

Whatever it is, it's a defense that has contributed to two consecutive victories for the Chiefs, which is the only stat that really matters.