Sunday, December 3, 2017

Will KC Get Healthy Against Struggling Jets?

It certainly feels like this season's gone off the rails here in KC, but can the Chiefs get back on track against a sub-par team today? It's hard to tell. The 4-7 New York Jets hold opponents to fewer yards per game than the Bills, Giants, Cowboys or Raiders - as in the last four teams to embarrass your Kansas City Chiefs. Their dead-even turnover differential is the same as the Giants and six worse than the Bills, but really, this game isn't about the Jets. It's all about which Chiefs team shows up at MetLife Stadium today. After several weeks of genuinely surprising ineptitude, I really don't know how accurate these three predictions will be.

1. We'll talk more this week about Andy Reid's decision to give up more of the play-calling responsibility to offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, but I think it's a great idea to change things up when the entire offense is being engulfed in this black hole of conservative-but-confusing coaching. Let's remember that the Chiefs have three legit talents on offense that should stretch the field and keep defenses guessing. I'll predict that KC will have a somewhat better time doing that and score more points than the Oddshark.com's prediction of 18.2 points.

2. The Chiefs have coughed the ball up in every game since playing Oakland in Week 7. I predict more conservatism - which isn't necessarily a good thing - for KC's offense, which will lead to zero interceptions for the Chiefs today.


3. This is not an intimidating opponent. The Jets are no better than 15th in total yards, passing yards, rushing yards and points per game, or total yards, passing yards, rushing yards and points per game allowed. They're simply not good at any general aspect of the game, meaning this talented-but-streaky Chiefs squad should be able to take care of business today. Reid deserves credit for ceding some play-calling duties when the team is struggling so profoundly. It's helped in the past, and I'll have faith that it works again today. I predict that the Chiefs overcome an inferior team today, barely, and beat the Jets in a close one. KC wins, 20-17, but their future remains uncertain.

Doug LaCerte procrastinated on this article too much to say anything clever about his Facebook page or using Twitter @DLaC67.

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