Can KC Handle the Broncos and their Bruised Egos?

Only the New York Jets average fewer points scored per game than the Denver Broncos. The only team with a loss to Denver this year that currently has a winning record is the Miami Dolphins, who were sticking with Ryan Fitzpatrick at the time. After our Kansas City Chiefs took care of business last week against a playoff contender in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, this week's competition won't exactly incite mass panic in Chiefs Kingdom.

We shift now from watching an all-time great trying to keep up with Patrick to watching a remarkably ineffective player trying to avoid embarrassment. Yardage, completion percentage stats and various forms of quarterback rating all infer that Drew Lock is one of football's worst starting QB's. The blame falls less on this 24 year-old and more on the coaching staff failing to maximize his potential, but the Chiefs won't feel sorry for taking advantage of those failures tonight.

That coaching staff would be wise to build a gameplan involving lots of running the ball for the Broncos. To beat the Chiefs when Patrick Mahomes is on his A-game requires a team to score more than 50, and I don't know if the Broncos will score more than 20 tonight. This means the best chance Denver has, unsurprisingly, is to dominate the time of possession battle with a successful rushing attack that keeps Patrick and his lethal offense off the field. Unfortunately for Broncos fans, Denver enters Week 13 with the fifth-lowest time of possession average in the NFL.

Oddshark has the spread for this game at 13.5, but perhaps pride will stop Denver from looking quite that awful today. I still predict a relatively comfy 31-20 victory for our Chiefs to get everyone ready for a tough road trip that includes meetings with the Dolphins and Saints.