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The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Arizona Cardinals 31-13 on Sunday and created plenty of good stats, which we've already talked about. They also created some bad stats. Kind of. I went through and picked out five "bad" stats from the game but, frankly, there aren't many bad stats in this one. The Chiefs had a complete performance.
So here's my attempt at finding five bad stats for the Chiefs in this game:
101
That's the number of rushing yards for the Cardinals in this game. Speaking to reporters after the game, DE Shaun Smith said one of the things the Chiefs didn't do well is wrapping up on the running backs on a few plays. The Cardinals turned a few 1-2 yard gains into 5-6 yard gains on Sunday and it would have been a problem had the Chiefs not made them one-dimensional very quickly with a 21-3 lead. That said, this was an acceptable performance given everything else that happened in the game.
36
That's the Chiefs third down percentage on offense in this game. On Monday morning, Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt told the guys on 620 KTAR in Arizona that they actually did well against the Chiefs on third down. Unfortunately, they didn't do so well on first and second down. The Chiefs average 34 percent on the season so it was actually a step up but that puts them in the low 20s relative to the rest of the NFL. Again, this wasn't a major problem on Sunday but something to keep in mind moving forward.
182
That's the total number of yards for receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Steve Breaston. Everyone knew they were the Cardinals biggest weapons coming into the game and the final tally looked good. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, KC really held them in check during any of the important points of the game so this wasn't a problem.
23:48
OK, this isn't really a stat but Jamaal Charles didn't get his first carry until 23 minutes and 48 seconds had passed in the game. It worked out OK in the end but...why?
1
This is another bad stat that's not really a bad stat. The Chiefs gave up one touchdown in the game -- on the final play of the game. They also gave up one touchdown against the San Francisco 49ers -- on the final play of the game. Why can't the Chiefs step it up on the final play of the game when leading by three-plus touchdowns? Yes, that's sarcasm.