The Kansas City Chiefs will wrap up their fifth decade of football this Sunday against the Denver Broncos. As we all know, it's been a pretty miserable second half of the decade. The Chiefs made the playoffs in 2006, but were quickly eliminated. 2007, 2008 and now 2009 have been a variety of franchise lows for the Chiefs. Offense, defense, point differential, wins and losses....all critical failures for the Chiefs at some point this decade.
As Mr. Wendler over at Warpaint Illustrated points out, this decade has a chance to be the worst. Ever.
Forget the death of Derrick Thomas, two embarrassing playoff defeats and the first blackout in 20 years. If the Chiefs don’t beat the Broncos, they will cement the last decade as the worst in the history of the Kansas City Chiefs. Without a win in Denver, the last 10 years will have featured Kansas City’s lowest winning percentage.
Winning percentage was used because the 60s and 70s weren't played with a 16 game schedule.
Mr. Wendler did all the research (and we thank him for that) and it shows that the Chiefs current record this decade, 69-90, puts them at a .4339 winning percentage. The current decade-low is .440 434.
(Just an FYI - I reached out to Mr. Wendler to clarify something. Ties count as half a win in his research because that's the way they're recorded in NFL standings.)
With a win, the Chiefs will surpass that winning percentage. A loss will dip them to .431, or the worst decade in franchise history.
So, this Broncos game is actually big in terms of the historical consequences. Win and you're second worst. Lose and, well, I'm sure we'll broach that topic if it comes.