On a clear, chilly night in Chicago, Chiefs Kingdom will watch on as their squad faces off with the Mediocrity of the Midway. Our Kansas City Chiefs paved their way to the playoffs already, and they're positioned to face a team with at least seven L's in the Wild Card round. If KC doesn't take care of business tonight, however, they could be forced into a tougher matchup against the Buffalo Bills.
Remember those preseason predictions that the Chiefs and Bears could meet in the Big Game? Well, Chicago and a young QB picked before Patrick Mahomes in his draft will enter this game with a .500 record and without playoff aspirations.
That QB shoulders a bunch of the blame for the Bears' problems this year because the defense looks playoff-worthy. Chicago ranks in the top ten in yards per game allowed, and only two teams in the league hold opponents to fewer points per game. Mitch Trubisky has certainly struggled, but he deserves credit for quietly becoming a competent scrambling QB. Let's keep a close eye on the ability of KC's defense to set the edge and keep Tru-Tru in the pocket. It could decide whether or not the Bears can make this game close. Actually, they're keeping almost all their games close; Chicago has only lost by more than a single possession two times this year. This is in large part to the Bears defense stuffing the run consistently.
Only three teams in football hold their opponents to a lower average on the ground, and only five teams limit the opposition to fewer rushing yards per game. Chicago's dominance of their opposition's rushing game throughout this season indicates that the Chiefs will struggle to control the clock and win the time of possession battle. KC has enough firepower to win this game seven times out of ten, but this inability to excel at old-school football may make this a tougher test than it seems at first glance. Let's not forget that the Chiefs also struggle to stop multipurpose weapons like Tarik Cohen.
It should be fun to see Mahomes find ways to pick apart one of the league's best defenses. Every game he plays is evidence that the Chiefs should score enough to stay out of reach of Chicago's struggling offense. Bears head coach and Andy Reid protege Matt Nagy should have his squad ready to rain on Reid's parade, but I expect our Chiefs to persevere at Soldier Field tonight.
Doug LaCerte writes about Kansas City sports and occasionally glances at Facebook and Twitter.
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