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If you take a glance at the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans' stats from yesterday, you'll see both teams put up similar overall numbers:
- Score: 31, 35
- Total first downs: 25, 23;
- Third down efficiency: 56%, 50%; and,
- Total yards: 417, 421.
But when you break the stats down by quarter, you see that the Kansas City Chiefs' defense essentially collapsed in the final fifteen minutes of the game. Here are Houston's fourth quarter stats:
- 21 points scored;
- 13 first downs;
- 185 total yards;
- 155 passing yards; and,
- Zero punts.
The Texans had more than half of their total first downs in the fourth quarter. They also had over half of their passing yards in the fourth quarter. If the Chiefs are able to force just one Texans punt in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs may have ended up winning the game.
So, what happened in the final quarter of the game? From what I saw, the Texans ramped up their offense and the Chiefs' couldn't keep up. The secondary got taken advantage of and a handful of decent gains by the Texans kept their drives alive.
The Chiefs weren't able to put the hammer down on the Texans in the fourth quarter. And they lost because of it.