KC Can Bounce Back By Attacking Raiders' Unproven QB

Chiefs Kingdom is fully aware that the Kansas City Chiefs are the better team on paper for today's game, but how will the Chiefs bounce back from last week's loss to the Philadelphia Eagles? Yes, the Chiefs lost to the Eagles last week, and that still stings, but we have to remember all the things that went wrong in order for KC to lose that game. Travis Kelce fumbled the ball in the red zone. Patrick Mahomes threw a pick in the dang end zone. Justin Watson, Marquez Valdez-Scantling and even Kelce dropped game-altering, catchable balls. After all that, the Chiefs lost to the defending NFC champs by four.

Despite also coming off a loss, the Raiders will be pumped up for this game. The dismissal of former head coach Josh McDaniels seems to have lifted a dark cloud from over the franchise. A win over KC would be monumental for the Raiders and their interim head coach Antonio Pierce. The old saying would propose that Vegas has everything to win while KC has everything to lose. Luckily for Chiefs fans, predicting a victory for Vegas (the football team) against any opponent that isn't a tomato can is something that Vegas (the oddsmakers) would never do.

The theme for the Las Vegas Raiders this season has been simple, if not intriguing: they lost to every team they played that doesn't stink. These Raiders, who are surprisingly still in the playoff hunt past the half-way point of this season, collected W's when facing the Broncos, Packers, Pats, Giants and Jets. None of those teams have winning records. Even the Raiders' weapons that may frighten most other teams in the league will match up poorly against the Chiefs.

Davante Adams still looks like an elite receiver, but the Chiefs excel in handling elite receivers now. The L'Jarius Sneed/Trent McDuffie tandem helped limit A.J. Brown to a single catch for eight yards last week, and I've extensively covered them shutting down other great wide-outs this year. The Raiders' ability to keep their QB upright will be tested by the Chiefs' elite pass-rush today, as well. Vegas' 2.5 sacks allowed per game is almost exactly the league average - they're tied for 17th in that category - and the Chiefs 3.6 sacks per game is the NFL's second-highest.

Another key matchup to watch for will be Isiah Pacheco facing off against the Raiders run defense. Although Vegas held the Dolphins Raheem Mostert mostly in-check last week, they've been one of the league's worst over the course of the regular season. Pacheco ran the ball 19 times for 89 yards against Philly's elite run defense last week. He's only 27 carries and 116 rushing yards away from his total production last season. Another solid performance from Pacheco today could ensure that he surpasses last season's production well before Christmas this year.

Pacheco and KC's defense should be enough to avoid some Cinderella nonsense today. The Raiders starting quarterback and 135th draft pick in the latest draft, Aidan O'Connell, hasn't done enough to instill nearly that much faith in Vegas. I know the Chiefs have had their struggles lately, but we cannot abandon all logic and presume KC would lose a game like this. The Chiefs offense isn't going to fix itself overnight, though. I'm predicting an ugly 24-16 victory for Kansas City.

Expect Plenty of Points When Chiefs Face Buffalo

Last Monday did not go according to plan for our Kansas City Chiefs, but they ended that night victorious. After KC looked unstoppable against Brady's Bucs in Week 4, Davante Adams and the Las Vegas Raiders almost stunned the Chiefs at the last second. Speaking of stunning a team at the last second, the Bills are in town. The top two teams in the AFC, and perhaps the NFL, face off today for the first time since their insane playoff thriller. We never know how these meetings with the Buffalo Bills will go, but we can safely predict a bunch of points on the scoreboard.

Both the Chiefs and Bills have scored over 30 in three out of five weeks, which is more impressive than usual considering the lack of scoring throughout the rest of the league. 23.6 points per game gets a team into the top ten this year, whereas last year it took 26.5 points. It's hard to do better than Josh Allen's 424 passing yards and four touchdowns last week. The struggling KC secondary that got exposed by Davante Adams on Monday must now face a potentially more potent threat in Allen and Stefon Diggs. Opponents are compiling a 105.5 Passer Rating against the Chiefs' defense, which puts them at 28th in that statistic, while Buffalo is the league's best in this regard, holding opponents to a 67.8 Passer Rating.

Also, the Bills' secondary has 8 picks, and the Chiefs have just one. That seems like plenty of evidence to make me pick the Bills today, but I'm not doing it. There's just something about the Chiefs playing a bad game, win or lose, that makes them better in the following week. We can safely say KC plays up and down to their competition, so we should see them at their best again today. Despite Buffalo looking like legit Super Bowl contenders, and possibly frontrunners, I'm predicting that the Chiefs win another thriller, 38-34, and take the clear lead in the hunt for the AFC's #1 seed.

Can KC Keep Crushing Revamped Raiders?

Each passing year makes me feel two years older and twice as confident that early October is the best chunk of time on the calendar. As playoff baseball and spooky season both begin, as the countless different shades of gold and red emerge from the trees around us, so, too, do the true identities of teams in the NFL. Our Kansas City Chiefs just racked up 41 points on one of football's greatest defenses. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had allowed 27 total points in the three games prior to facing KC. The Chiefs scored more than that in the first half. How will Mahomes' offense fare tonight when they face a struggling Las Vegas Raiders defense?

Vegas ranks in the bottom half of the league in total yards allowed, passing yards allowed and points allowed. Only the Arizona Cardinals have fewer sacks per game. If they hope to keep this game close, the Raiders will need to succeed on third down. Their opponents' 35.42% conversion rate on third down is ranked a respectable 13th league-wide - three slots higher than KC's defense. The Chiefs' offense, on the other hand, converts slightly over 51% of its third down conversion attempts. Only the Buffalo Bills are more successful at moving the chains on third down.

The Raiders' offense just played their best game of the season so far, and more of that success might make tonight's game dramatic. Davante Adams caught nine passes from his former college QB Derek Carr. Josh Jacobs ran for 144 yards and two touchdowns while also catching five passes. It's no surprise that Vegas' first win of the year came in the first game in which these guys both looked great.

Vegas may be improving, but the Chiefs already look like the best team in football. Only Josh Allen's Bills can argue that fact at this point. I think the Raiders will have every reason to come into this game motivated and ready to win. That means Vegas could keep this one close. If they do, history indicates that KC is still destined for victory and the Raiders are about to screw everything up for themselves. Such is the true identity of each team. With that in mind, I'm predicting a 31-24 victory for KC tonight.

KC Cannot Expect to Wreck Chargers Like They Wrecked Arizona

The Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs started their seasons in very different ways this year. After a slow start, L.A's offense heated up and Justin Herbert spread the ball around effectively against the Las Vegas Raiders. Six different Chargers caught at least three passes in Week 1's 24-19 victory over the new Raiders regime. It wasn't all roses for the Chargers, though. Austin Ekeler averaged under 2.6 yards per carry, which made controlling the clock difficult. L.A's defense also allowed a variety of big plays to Darren Waller, Josh Jacobs and especially Davante Adams, which kept Vegas in a game that should've been decided by far more than a single possession.

Derek Carr had the ball late in the fourth quarter with a chance to score a TD to take the lead, despite throwing three picks and fumbling twice. I expect Herbert's crew to put up more than 24 on a team when the opposing QB compiles a 26.9 QBR. I'd be willing to bet my house that Patrick Mahomes will put up slightly better numbers than this, but I'm only renting. Mahomes didn't throw any picks while racking up 360 passing yards and five TD passes. Isiah Pacheco, Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Jerick McKinnon all averaged at least five yards per carry with at least four carries each. Pacheco, the 7th-round draft pick rookie, led the way with 12 carries for 62 yards on the ground. 

I ultimately think KC loses this game tonight, but I also don't think that sting will linger for too long. I'm predicting the Chiefs as the 2022 Super Bowl winners, and I promise, that was my plan before the dominant 44-21 win in Arizona. Few teams are as complete as KC, and none have the same level of supreme talent that has achieved victory in big moments. With that being said, the Chiefs could easily prove me wrong tonight by wrecking the Chargers, who honestly looked more flawed than I expected in Week 1. I have to balance my optimism for now, though, and this newly rebuilt Chiefs offense isn't going to destroy all teams like they destroyed Arizona last week.

I'm predicting a great game and a Chargers victory tonight, mainly because I have faith in them to look more like the Super Bowl contender most fans expect to see. I also think the Chiefs are the better team when it matters most, and I'd be thrilled to see these teams face off three times this season. This time around, I'm predicting a 30-27 Chargers victory.