Chiefs Prepared To Defend 9-0 Record On The Field from KC Star
Worst 9-0 team in NFL history, heard that one?
If Smith has, he looks the other way.
"You keep your nose down and you keep doing what you've been doing and you don't listen to any of the stuff," Smith said.
Besides, statistically there's nothing to it. Adding the final major offensive and defensive statistics for the 19 teams in the Super Bowl era that started 9-0, the Chiefs' average ranking in those categories is 10.2, bolstered by an NFL-best scoring defense.
Four teams that went on to records of 12-4 or better, including the 2003 Chiefs, had a worse average rating in the same categories.
Chiefs Unplugged: Assistant Coaches from The Mothership
DEFENSIVE BACKS COACH - EMMITT THOMAS (HOF)
You've been with this organization for a while, what are your thoughts on 9-0 and what this team has been able to accomplish so far?
"First of all, I played here for a few years and then left and was gone for a while; this is my fourth year back and I'm very happy to be back and I feel blessed to get another opportunity to work for the Hunts and Kansas City. 9-0 is extremely great, right now. We had the wildest imagination at the beginning of the season and training camp and we had no idea we would be here, but you never know how the ball is bounced. I think the quarterback is coming in and giving us a lift and the guys are playing well. The ball is bouncing our way, so we're very happy."
Chiefs Activate Commings From IR, Waive McDougald from The Mothership
The Kansas City Chiefs activated defensive back
Sanders Commings from injured reserve and waived safetyBradley McDougald , the team announced today.Sanders Commings joined the Chiefs as the club's fifth-round pick (134th overall) in the 2013 NFL Draft and has spent the first nine weeks of the 2013 season on injured reserve, with the designation to return
Are The Chiefs The Worst 9-0 Team In NFL History? from KC Star
Here are the season averages and NFL rankings in five statistical categories for the 19 teams to start at least 9-0 in the Super Bowl era (This year's Chiefs averages are through nine games; the rest are for each team's full season). Then we calculated each team's average ranking and sorted them from worst to best.
The best team ... the 1972 Dolphins, the only NFL team to finish the regular season and postseason undefeated.
And the worst team, according to the average ranking, is ... not the 2013 Chiefs, or even the 2003 Chiefs. It's a three-way tie among the 2006 and 2009 Colts and the 2011 Packers, who allowed the most yards in the NFL.
Catching Up With Chiefs DL Coach Tommy Brasher from The Mothership
What are your initial thoughts about Denver?
"We're doing that right now. Obviously, we're seeing a very good football team. One of the great quarterbacks of all time. He is running a very-well executed offense, so we've got our hands full and we understand that. I think these guys will be ready."
Talking Chiefs' Surge, Team MVP, Broncos Fans And More from KC Star
The Broncos are good. Very good. Might be the best team in the NFL, actually. But this is the NFL, not college football. There isn't that much separation. The Cowboys scored 48 points on Denver. Indy scored 39.
The Broncos have turned it over 17 times, more than all but four teams, and their defense is giving up 6.8 yards per pass - more than all but seven teams.
Again. The Broncos are very, very good.
And very, very good teams can be beat.
Trust Going A Long Way In Chiefs Locker Room from The Mothership
The trust factor was again involved in Sunday's come-from-behind victory against the Buffalo Bills. Coach Reid said the team didn't hit the panic button, when trailing 10-3.
"It really comes back to the ebb and flow that takes place," coach Reid said. "They just kind of keep it consistent. I don't see a lot of panic with them, that's not what I see. You see that with teams, where guys seem to encourage each other and I think that helps in situations like that. It wasn't beautiful there; I mean, that's not what it was. They worked through it, took advantage of opportunities and it worked out okay. They trust each other there, so that helps."
KCChiefs.com Video: Assistant Coaches Take The Mic
KC Star Video: Chiefs' Reid, Sean Smith Analyze Smith's Big Play vs Bills
NFL.com Video: Breaking Down The Kansas City Chiefs' Undefeated Season
Chiefs GM Dorsey: 'There's Something Special Here... 'Team' Means Everything' from FS Kansas City
John Dorsey won't yank your chain: He digs his roster, as-is. He digs the Kansas City Chiefs just the way they are, 9-0 warts and all.
"I think this roster right here, I like the guys here, I do," Dorsey, the Chiefs' first-year general manager, told a small group of reporters this afternoon at the team's practice facility.
"Because there's something special here. And you don't want to ... there's something special here. 'Team' means everything."
Chiefs GM John Dorsey Appreciates Team Growing Together from Chiefs Spin
Speaking to four reporters during an impromptu Tuesday afternoon sit down at the Chiefs training facility, Dorsey touched on a variety of topics, including the team's successful run to start the season.
While Dorsey wouldn't expound on the Chiefs' winning streak, he did take a moment to reflect on how the team's foundation played a role in the historic turnaround.
It starts in the area where the players have an opportunity to bond every day.
If Charles Ever Goes Down, Knile Davis Knows He's Next Man Up from FS Kansas City
So what if Charles were to go down with injury? How much would the Chiefs' offense change?
"No difference in how we do things," offensive coordinator Doug Pederson says. "It's just a case of next man up, and that would be Knile (Davis)."
The question, of course, is whether Davis, a rookie out of Arkansas, would be ready to handle the gig.
Marcus Cooper: Highlighting The NFL's Most Quietly Impressive Rookie from Bleacher Report
Through nine games this season, Cooper is currently ranked as the No. 2 cornerback in coverage and the No. 4 cornerback overall, according to PFF.
He's given up just 15 receptions on 39 passes thrown at him, and that completion percentage of 38.5 is tied for best in the NFL with Alterraun Verner of the Tennessee Titans.
Chiefs Fortunate To Have Healthy QBs from Chiefs Spin
Quarterback coach Matt Nagy acknowledges Smith has taken some "big hits" this season, but points out Smith's resiliency in avoiding injury.
"Alex is tough now," Nagy said during Tuesday's assistant coaches media session. "That's a big-time trait to have to be a tough quarterback. And also there's a difference between being hurt and being injured. He hasn't been injured so far."
Kansas City Chiefs: Sizing Up The Long Odds For A Perfect Season from Bloomberg Businessweek
Here you see the Chiefs are favored in five of their final seven games, but are the underdogs in both games against Denver. In fact, their very next game, on the road in Denver, is the one they are most likely to lose. Burke's model only gives them a 24 percent chance of winning that game.
KC Can Use Another Big Body In Secondary from ESPN
With two of their next three games scheduled to be against the high-scoring Denver Broncos, it's not a bad time for the Kansas City Chiefs to fortify themselves in the secondary. That's what they did Tuesday.
The Chiefs activated rookie defensive back Sanders Commings off the injured reserve list. Commings, a fifth-round draft pick from Georgia, broke his collarbone in the first training camp practice in July. The Chiefs released rookie safety Bradley McDougald to clear roster room.
In The N.F. L., Even The Strong Have Weaknesses from The New York Times
The last three weeks, the Chiefs defeated teams that started third-string quarterbacks: Houston's Case Keenum, Cleveland's Jason Campbell and Buffalo's Jeff Tuel. Kansas City has been able to dominate games with a defense that is producing remarkable statistics. The Chiefs have allowed 11 touchdowns, and their defense has scored six.
BUT ... the Chiefs need to pass to win. Against inferior teams, Kansas City can win with a conservative passing game and a dominant defense. The Chiefs rank 31st in yards a pass attempt, and Alex Smith ranks near the bottom in passing yards, touchdowns and completion percentage. After a bye this week, the Chiefs play Denver in two of their next three games. That will provide far more information than games against backup quarterbacks.
Game Rewind: Stevie Johnson Calls Smith's INT Lucky from NFL.com
Bills receiver Stevie Johnson -- who wiggled past Smith on the play to get open in end zone -- says the Kansas City corner "definitely" got lucky on the play.
"I shook him, he almost fell, and he basically fell into an interception and that was it," Johnson said after the game, per the Bills' official website.
NFL Power Rankings: Among 9-0 Teams, Chiefs May Be Worst from CBS Sports
So for this week's version of the Power Rankings, I went and took a look at all the teams that have started 9-0 in the past 30 years. Counting the Chiefs this season, there have been 15 teams to open 9-0. Of those 15, 10 made it to the Super Bowl and six won it.
How do they compare to this year's Chiefs team? I studied the offensive and defensive rankings for yards and points to make a valid comparison. What did I find? The Chiefs are one of the worst, if not the worst 9-0 team of the group.
Another Jets Super Bowl Column from The Wall Street Journal
Is it reckless and goofy to say these things out loud? Goofy, certainly. But there's no runaway team in the NFL at the moment-Denver appears more vulnerable than it did a month ago, and it's getting colder, windier, less predictable. The 9-0 Kansas City Chiefs are the 9-0 Kansas City Chiefs-a stunning turnabout, but people still look at that team like it's a rental car about to run out of gas.
Carolinas D is better than KC's - Much has been made about the Chiefs' defense this season, and deservingly so. Allowing fewer than 17 points in nine straight games en route to a 9-0 start isn't just impressive, it's downright dominant. While they have the wins and numbers - No. 1 in sacks (36) and points against average (12.3 per game) - to substantiate their case, so too do the Carolina Panthers.
The Panthers are just a shade behind KC in points allowed (13.1), but they rank ahead of the Chiefs in total yards allowed - 299.9 per game (3rd) to KC's 326.9 (8th) - and rushing yards allowed - 79.1 (2nd) to KC's 118.6 (24th). The Chiefs (3rd) are allowing fewer passing yards per game than the Panthers (10th) but only by 12 yards per game (208.3 to 220.8), which is the equivalent of about two passes. The only number that really sets the Chiefs apart from the Panthers at this point is their nine wins versus Carolina's five.
Reid Says Calling Alex Smith A "Game Manager" Is A Compliment from ProFootballTalk
"I think it's a tribute to him," Reid told Pro Football Talk on NBCSN. "I don't know one great quarterback that hasn't been a great game manager. So I think it's a heck of a compliment, and he does that, he's taken the youngest offensive line in the National Football League and helped them become better. One great thing about great quarterbacks is they make everyone around them a little better than what they are and he's able to do that, including the head coach."
Thank You For Not Coaching, Week 9 from Grantland
Buffalo was in line for a shocking victory over the undefeated Chiefs, but the 10-plus-point swing that resulted from Tuel's pick-six on the Kansas City goal line was enough to turn things in Kansas City's favor. This game was close until the very end despite the score, but the Bills helped make it interesting by trying to create big plays. I don't know that Tuel is my idea of a read-option quarterback, but there he was running the zone-read at home against the Chiefs on Sunday. The Bills also went for it against the conservative Chiefs on fourth down, with a fourth-and-2 attempt in no-man's-land producing a bomb to an open T.J. Graham that fell incomplete. (A better throw would have yielded a touchdown.) At the very least, the Bills might have made Mercury Morris fetch a bottle of champagne. That's something.
Bad Quarterback League, Week 9: The Many Faces Of The Red Rifle from Grantland
The Chiefs are so horrible. Not because of Sunday - the Bills are actually a sneaky-decent team, especially at home - but just in general. Alex Smith was held to 124 yards passing Sunday, didn't complete a pass over 25 yards, and just generally continued to be Alex Smith. And the Chiefs are still the Chiefs, no matter how hard their fans try to pretend they belong in the same conversation with the Broncos.
They're like a college football team that floats to the top of the rankings by default and every week stays in the top five, while everyone else sees them up there and says, "NOPE, not taking you seriously until we absolutely have to."
Kansas City plays Denver in two weeks, so ... we'll see.
Worst Players On NFL's Best Teams from ESPN
The Chiefs may be 9-0, but the arm of Smith has hardly been tested this season. Smith is a player who has just enough talent that he can get by with a special defense (and the Chiefs D is special, as they comfortably are our highest-ranked defense). As the poor results under Matt Cassel showed us, Smith's achievements are still notable, but it means when the schedule toughens up (as it will over the next month), Smith's flaws are likely to be exposed.