Are the Chiefs the NFL’s worst-ever 9-0 team?

It’s like facing criticism for being the least impactful Nobel Prize winner. Or the bottom of the class at Harvard. Or the slowest runner at the Olympics.

People keep disparaging the imperfectly perfect Kansas City Chiefs as the NFL’s worst-ever 9-0 team.

Thirty-four teams in NFL history have started a season 9-0. The Chiefs’ plus-58 point differential is the lowest of any of them. Their total margin of victory is barely a quarter of the plus-208 point differential racked up through nine games by the 2007 New England Patriots on their way to the NFL’s most recent undefeated regular season.

Eight other NFL teams this season have a higher point differential than the Chiefs. The one-loss Detroit Lions lead the NFL at plus-113, followed by the two-loss Buffalo Bills at plus-97. Even the three-loss Washington Commanders (plus-73) and Los Angeles Chargers (plus-68) rank above Kansas City.

Seven of Kansas City’s nine wins have come by a single score. Four have been in doubt until the final play of the game. It started back in September when the Chiefs beat the Ravens by a big toe and scraped past the Bengals thanks to a game-saving fourth-down pass interference penalty. Then earlier this month, the Chiefs won the overtime coin toss and drove for a touchdown to edge the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The crescendo came last Sunday against Denver when Kansas City pulled off a Houdini-esque escape to salvage a game that seemed all but lost. Leo Chenal clinched a 16-14 Chiefs victory by bowling over a Broncos lineman and diving to block Will Lutz’s potential game-winning 35-yard field goal attempt.

Leo Chenal is out of this world strong. I just watched the blocked field goal in slow-mo. He literally tossed the guy in front of him to the ground AND made the diving block.

UNREAL pic.twitter.com/GYH0D4AbeA

— how bout those CHIEFS (@hbtCHIEFS) November 10, 2024

“The thing that has impressed me with this team is that they don’t get down,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Monday….

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/are-the-chiefs-the-nfls-worst-ever-9-0-team-200847222.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-11-12 20:08:47

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