The Tennessee Titans just shook things up in the AFC with a victory over the Buffalo Bills. This wasn't one of those weird, fluky games where crazy turnovers happen or timely penalties cost the superior team a victory. The Titans and Bills each turned the ball over just once, and Tennessee gave up 31 more yards via penalty than Buffalo did. The Titans just got the job done against a Bills team that looked, for a moment, like the best team in the conference.
This is an impressive feat, but it could turn out to be a major anomaly. Prior to their win against Buffalo, Tennessee faced four straight teams with defenses ranking no better than 20th in yards allowed per game. The currently undefeated Arizona Cardinals smoked the Titans 38-13 in Week 1, which means last week's victory over the Bills was Tennessee's only successful showing against a strong defense so far. Luckily for Titans fans, the Titans and the frontrunner for MVP will face off this Sunday with a defense that is objectively not strong, to put it kindly.
The Chiefs rank 27th league-wide in rushing yards allowed per game and 30th in opponent yards per rush attempt. KC linebacker Anthony Hitchens has already been ruled out, and Chris Jones' status is still listed as questionable. That's bad news for a team trying to stop this era's version of Jim Brown. Titans superstar Derrick Henry compiled at least 110 rushing yards in each of his last five games. He's going to beat up a bad Chiefs rushing defense, and that's no hot take, but will it be enough to make up for Tennessee's own flaws on defense?
Opponents with good offenses score a lot on this Tennessee defense that has allowed the fourth-most passing yards and fourth-most points to opponents this season. The only two teams with winning records that Tennessee has faced this season scored at least 30 points, and so did the 2-4 Seattle Seahawks when Russell Wilson was still healthy. If Derrick Henry couldn't ensure victory for the Titans against Zach Wilson and the New York Jets, fans in Chiefs Kingdom should be excited about Patrick Mahomes' performance today. I'm predicting a 37-34 victory for a Chiefs team with plenty of concerns on defense and plenty of firepower on offense.
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