Our eyes now turn to the desert where the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Las Vegas Raiders in a pivotal divisional face-off. The winner here undeniably takes the inside track in the race for the AFC West. Can the Chiefs play a complete enough game to claim victory tonight? We can at least see that their defense looks up to the task recently.
This Chiefs defense held opponents to a touchdown or less in five out of their last eight halves of football. Chris Jones moving to the inside with the addition of an immediately effective Melvin Ingram made a major impact, as did the improving health of KC's secondary. Perhaps the most important recent change is the emergence of Nick Bolton and Willie Gay as trustworthy, dynamic athletes in the middle of the Chiefs defense. The presence of these capable, young linebackers will improve both Kansas City's defense and financial status for years to come.
All these improvements defensively flips this teams' identity, especially when paired with surprising struggles of Patrick Mahomes. Despite perhaps the worst stretch of football in his still-young career, I cannot expect Mahomes to be mediocre today or ever. This week is just different, not only because of the Raiders, but because of the chance KC has to take hold of their division.
Some regression to the mean must also be expected regarding the production of each teams' QB. Mahomes ranks 16th in QBR, and right behind him at 17 is Derek Carr. The Chiefs' half-a-billion-dollar man finished 2nd overall in that category last season, and Carr finished at 11th.
Vegas has also just shown the league that they can limit the opposition's quarterback, but they also showed that it may not matter. The Raiders allowed only 110 passing yards last week while sacking the opposing QB twice and hitting him six times. Despite this, they still lost to Daniel Jones' Giants.
Like I remind myself every week, it's not all about KC's quarterback. The Chiefs should utilize their emerging rushing offense against this Raiders defense that allows the fifth-fewest passing yards per game and the fifth-most rushing yards per game this season. If Andy Reid and the rest of the coaching staff can do this effectively, it should give the Raiders plenty of time to beat themselves. I predict a hard-earned 27-23 victory for the Chiefs tonight.
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