Kansas City Chiefs QB Matt Cassel is on a 14:1 pace of touchdowns to interceptions over the last seven weeks, which is no surprise considering the emphasis the Chiefs put on protecting the football. Taking care of the ball has been one of the themes this year and the results are showing it.
Against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, turnovers are expected to once again be a major factor. The Seahawks are 5-5 and in their five victories, they've gone plus-nine in the turnover department. In their five losses, they've gone minus-eight.
Can you see what's important here? Chiefs head coach Todd Haley does and says, like it is every week, the game will come down to turnovers.
"I think that’s just the way that it is, if you turn it over your chances of winning go way down. If you just don’t turn it over, you win eight and a half out of 10, at least in the games played this year. Just protecting the football in itself and not giving it away is a huge stat. Like last week, neither team, us or Arizona didn’t turn it over so one had to win and one had to lose and fortunately it worked out for us."
I'll trust Haley's research but he says you win 85 percent of games you don't turn it over. You see where his protect-the-ball mentality comes from?
So how can the Chiefs create at turnover?
Interception: In nine games this year, Seahakws QB Matt Hasselbeck has avoided an interception just twice. He's probably going to give the Chiefs an opportunity to take one of them.
Fumble: The Seahawks are like the Chiefs in that they don't fumble very often. They've put the ball on the ground 10 times (to the Chiefs eight) and lost seven of them (to the Chiefs three).