Five Bad Stats From Kansas City Chiefs Loss To Denver Broncos

The Kansas City Chiefs were whooped up pretty good by the Denver Broncos on Sunday which means there are lots and lots of bad stats. We've already looked at five good stats so here are five bad ones.

53

Number of pass attempts from Matt Cassel. No, this stat isn't a reflection on Cassel but the situation. I don't think I'm going out on a limb here suggesting the Chiefs never want to see Cassel throw that many times. If you asked Todd Haley that, he would probably say he only cares if they win or lose. Yep, and I would bet the Chiefs win a very low percentage of games in which Cassel attempts over 50 passes. This team wins when they run the ball -- not when they pass it. Going into this game, the focus from our perspective was on running the ball. A lot. Once you make the Chiefs one dimensional and force them to pass, it's usually not a good ending for KC. 53 was actually a career high for Cassel (which is somewhat surprising considering he played in New England for a year) and I'd imagine if the Chiefs have their way he wouldn't surpass that again.

3

That's the number of first quarter touchdowns for the Broncos. Once that happened, it was over for KC. You and I both known this team isn't going to make a miraculous comeback like that. That's not how this team was built. They became one dimensional with the passing game, and that's clearly not the strength of their team. The Chiefs thrive on making their opponent one dimensional. On Sunday, they got a taste of their own medicine.

51

The Chiefs total rushing yards. That's an embarrassing number, especially when you saw they were averaging more than three times that number coming into this game. Last week against Oakland the Chiefs totaled 104 rushing yards, which many of us thought was very bad. Well, bad just got worse. The Chiefs had just three first downs on the ground, a season low. This is a team that's built to win tough games on the road via the run game and not turning it over. They failed miserably in that regard on Sunday. It wasn't just that the game got out of hand early and the Chiefs abandoned run. They just couldn't run it all as evidenced by the next stat.

2.9

Jamaal Charles' yards per carry. I'll take that number from Thomas Jones or Jackie Battle now and again but not Charles. He's the most effective running back in the NFL and he was shut down in the run game on Sunday. He couldn't do much of anything on the ground with 41 yards on 14 carries. This was his worst game of the season.

100

The Broncos red zone efficiency percentage. Todd Haley told us after the game that this was one of the problem areas. I mean…five trips to the red zone and 35 points. What else can you say?