Vikings' Allen，out of the ordinary

Quarterbacks rarely have that kind of immediate impact on a team's fortunes, let alone defensive ends. So let's break it all down.

The Chiefs, meanwhile, have imploded in the wake of the new Allen jerseys departure. A dominant defensive front in 2007, the Chiefs fielded one of the worst defensive lines in memory 2008. They barely improved in 2009.

Then Allen was traded to Minnesota in 2008: the Vikings football jerseys instantly went from a one-dimensional group of great run stoppers to a group of Defensive Hogs dominant in all phases of the game. They remained a dominant group in 2009.

By 2007, the Kansas City defense had improved dramatically, to the point that the stoppers carried the team despite a poor offense. Allen was a dominant defensive end in 2007 -- leading the league with 15.5 sacks -- and the Chiefs were a dominant group of Defensive Hogs: No. 5 overall on our Defensive Hog Index and the NFL's best defense on third downs.

Big changes were needed, and Allen was a part of that movement to solidify the defense. The Chiefs drafted him in the fourth round out of Idaho State. The Kansas City defense was actually worse in 2004 (27.2 PPG, 29th), but Allen showed promise with nine sacks as a rookie.

So Kansas City's promising 2003 season came crashing down around it, with a frustrating a 31-28 one-and-done playoff defeat at home.

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Allen led the NFL with 15.5 sacks in 2007, his final season with the Chiefs.

Peyton Manning football jerseysand the Indy offense shredded the Kansas City defense like cabbage in cole slaw that day: they gained 142 yards on the ground, 304 through the air, averaged a dominating 6.9 yards per play and the converted 8 of 11 third downs. The Chiefs were helpless defensively.

The pre-Allen Chiefs of 2003 went 13-3, won the AFC West and boasted the league's No. 1 offense (30.2 PPG). But they fielded a brutal defense (20.8 PPG, 19th), as the football world witnessed in a divisional playoff game against the Colts.

Allen arrived in Kansas City in 2004, on a team desperate for defensive help.

The Jared Allen effect

In addition to identifying great teams, the Defensive Hog Index allows us to prove that Allen is the NFL's MV non-QB P.

In the three years since we've offered the Defensive Hog Index, the No. 1 team in the indicator has twice won the Super Bowl football jerseys(the 2007 Giants and 2008 Steelers). The No. 1 team last year went 11-5 and reached the playoffs (Green Bay). Not a bad performance considering the indicator came between bites of a 99-cent chalupa.

(The Defensive Hog Index, for you CHFF newbies, measures each defense in three areas: ability to stop the run, ability to force Negative Pass Plays -- sacks and INTs -- and ability to get off the field on third down. )

The Cold, Hard Football Facts, however, boast a statistic that measures the performance of each team's defensive front. We call it the Defensive Hog Index, an incredible indicator pioneered one night while waiting in the Taco Bell drive-thru lane.

In football, we have few ways to measure the performance of defensive linemen, save for sacks and the often misleading tackles: the former was not even an official stat until 1982, the latter, the most basic function of defense, is still not an official stat.