According to their perfect 8-0 start, the Kansas City Chiefs are the best team in the NFL right now. However, considering how bad the team’s they’ve faced so far have been, and the quality of quarterbacks playing against them (half of them backups), it’s a bit early to crown them as the Crème de la Crème of the league.
The combined records of teams the Chiefs have beaten comes to 20-41, not winning against a single team with a record better than .500. In fact, the best team they’ve probably beaten were the Dallas Cowboys, giving up an early lead (Sounds familiar) to lose 17-16 at Arrowhead.
The rest of the opposition? Jacksonville Jaguars, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, Tennessee Titans, Oakland Raiders, Houston Texans and the Cleveland Browns. The list of quarterbacks they’ve faced so far has been even less impressive.
On the opening weekend against the Jags they faced Blaine Gabbert, who has since been benched and turned into the backup for the Jags. There’s also been Ryan Fitzpatrick of the Tennessee Titans, playing for the injured Jake Locker. Case Keenum of the Houston Texans is actually the team’s third-string quarterback, and the same goes for Jason Campbell, who moved up the depth chart for the Cleveland Browns thanks to Brian Hoyer picking up an injury and Brandon Weeden being extremely awful this season.
The Chiefs, due to the weak bunch of rivals and quarterbacks they’ve faced, are among the NFL leaders in most pass defense categories. Quarterbacks complete only 54.5% of their passes against them, best in the NFL; They’ve allowed only 8 passing touchdowns this season, while picking off their rivals 10 times. They lead the NFL in sacks with 36, mostly thanks to the 10-sack performance against the Raiders and Terrelle Pryor. The passer rating they’ve faced this season is 70, second only to the Seahawks, and they come in fourth when it’s yards-per-game, allowing only 205.8.
The second half of the season is considerably tougher: Playing the Broncos twice with Peyton Manning; playing the Chargers twice with Philip Rivers; playing the Indianapolis Colts with Andrew Luck; playing the Raiders again with Terrelle Pryor; facing the Washington Redskins with RG3. At least they continue their streak of weak playmakers facing the Bills and Thad Lewis in week 9.
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