I’m not feeling any better because of this.
I realize it’s helping many of you by stating the Chiefs were “lucky,” but I will never be a good time to try to cheer us up after the Super Bowl loss.
Now look, saying a team got lucky rather than “was better” is poor form. Almost as bad as “You didn’t beat them, they beat themselves.”
However, there could be some validity to it. David Lombardi of The Athletic obtained information on playoff teams since 2018 from Tom Bliss, a statistician who unearths all kinds of strange numbers. There were 80 teams in the NFL playoffs since 2018 when Bliss completed her stint on them at all times. Take a peek at the top team: who’s number 1:
Let’s shatter an incorrect narrative…. There have been 80 playoff teams since 2018. In @DataWithBliss‘ data-driven measure of luck (fumble recoveries, opponents’ drops/FGs), here are the “luck” ranks of those 80:2023 Chiefs: #12023 49ers: #69Aiyuk’s NFCCG catch included
Take note of how this begins in 2018. If they go further back, I wonder where the Seattle Seahawks are ranked. The Chiefs resembled some of the strangeness we witnessed with those Seattle teams in terms of how they played. On the other hand, the 49ers haven’t won a Super Bowl in the previous 20 years whereas Seattle has.