The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Chicago Bears on Sunday moving to 5-7 on the season and keeping some hope alive in making this season meaningful.
This was certainly an ugly game, there's no doubt about that, but with a win comes some good stats. Here are five of them from the Chiefs' 10-3 victory over the Bears (and I didn't even mention the solid special teams play).
3. Points given up by the Chiefs defense. For the second straight week, the Chiefs defense played well enough to win. They couldn't pull out the W against Pittsburgh last week but they did this time around. The Chiefs' season has been one of those weird ones where you really don't know what their identity is but the defense is making a strong case. Of course the defense played well because of....
7. Sacks by the Chiefs defense. Incredible. The worst pass rushing team in the league picks up seven sacks against Chicago, including three from rookie Justin Houston and even one from Tyson Jackson. Sacks are nice but two of them in particular were huge when one knocked the Bears out of field goal range and another resulted in a missed, longer field goal attempt. If Justin Houston complements Tamba Hali on the other side of the defense...holy moly, we may have ourselves a defense.
0-for-11. Chiefs third down defense. Another incredible stat -- the Bears didn't convert a third down. Let me say that again: The Chicago Bears did not convert a third down opportunity on Sunday. Or two fourth down attempts for that matter. The Chiefs defense was very good throughout the day and great when they needed to be.
107. Yards from scrimmage for Dexter McCluster. Nine rushes for 61 yards and four receptions for 46 yards but his biggest impact came on two plays. First, the 38-yard hail mary touchdown reception. See video of that here but the Chiefs, and McCluster in particular, did a terrific job making that play happen. Second, the 32-yard run (a career best) which pushed the Chiefs near midfield. That was especially huge because it came on a first and 15.
3:1. Turnover differential. This edition of Five Good Stats is basically all defense but let's take a minute to compliment the Chiefs offense for not turning it over (blame the special teams for the one turnover). The Tyler Palko era was averaging 3.5 turnovers a game entering Sunday so this is a big time improvement for them. The one turnover came early and it was kind of a fluke play where the ball (I think) hit Jalil Brown on the punt and the Bears recovered.