The Kansas City Chiefs have defied all odds to advance their regular season record to 11-1, and with five games left to play, the defending Super Bowl champions control their own destiny to earn the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.
Though the stellar play of the Chiefs’ stars— most notably tight ends Travis Kelce and Noah Gray— has buoyed the team in recent weeks, the experts at Pro Football Network have determined that Kansas City’s success has come down to one critical factor: luck.
According to an article by Ben Rolfe, an intrepid analyst and Deputy Editor of Fantasy and Sport Betting at Pro Football Network, the Chiefs are the luckiest team in the NFL.
See what Rolfe had to say about Kansas City’s luck below:
“According to Pro Football Network’s luck metric, the Chiefs are the luckiest team in the NFL right now. Their 11-1 record is 3.21 wins above their projected win-loss record based on their metrics in games this season.
Only two of their wins have been graded as “lucky” by the system, which means their win projection was below 45%. However, they have also won two games in which their win projection was just 51%.
The two games that graded as “lucky” were the Black Friday win over the Raiders and the Week 10 win over the Denver Broncos. Interestingly, both of those games ended with the Chiefs’ opponent within field goal range only to either have their kick blocked or a bizarre turnover cost them the game.”
Though Kansas City’s experience certainly gives the Chiefs an edge over opponents, it seems that the luck factor, however intangible, is the defending Super Bowl champions’ best asset heading into the home stretch of the regular season.
Stay tuned to see if Kansas City’s good fortune continues when the Chiefs face the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 14.