AFC Game Of The Week
Indianapolis Colts at Kansas City Chiefs
Colts: The entire world of football collectively came together to throw in the towel on them when Andrew Luck shocked everyone and announced his retirement at the age of 29. I wasn’t one of those people though. To be successful in this league, you need two things. First, you need a coach that can lead the team and they have that in Frank Reich and secondly, you need to have a backup quarterback that knows a thing or two about starting and they also have that. Jacoby Brissett is a good quarterback that had the chance in New England to sit behind the best to play the position and learn. When I knew he was going to be starting, I knew he was in good hands because his coach is an offensive minded guy and he’s also a former quarterback so you can’t sit here and tell me that a Frank isn’t coaching him up and giving him tips. This is still a good football that I picked to win the AFC South. That saying that any team can lose on any given Sunday is true because I didn’t expect to see them lose to the Oakland Raiders. In this league, you can’t take anyone lightly at all and that’s exactly what the Colts did. They struggled to defend the pass and pretty much everything the Raiders did offensively. Hopefully, they looked at the film and corrected what went wrong because they’ll have their hands full on Sunday night as they travel to Arrowhead in Kansas City.
Chiefs: For the third straight season, they sit at 4-0 and at this point, it looks as if they’re going to run away with the AFC West. It’s incredible how much depth they have offensively because when one guy goes down, they can just slip someone else in and they won’t miss a beat. They had me scared for a bit on Sunday, but I was impressed with how the Chiefs played in Detroit in week four. Patrick Mahomes didn’t throw a touchdown pass, but they were able to grind the game out and run the football which can sometimes be a lost art in the game because of how pass happy the league is. LeSean McCoy ran for a touchdown and Damien Williams ran for two. Shockingly, Kansas City was still able to put up 34 points. What I took away from that game was their defense may struggle to stop someone, but they’ll make a stop when they know they need too and that couldn’t be more accurate then what you saw on Sunday in Motown. They can also win the close games as well and not just blow the opponent out by the third quarter. They’ve been tested the last two weeks if you think about it. Baltimore gave them a run for their money in week three and the Lions gave them all they could handle last week. They’ll look for another 5-0 start when the Colts come to town for another showdown.
Colts Player to Watch: Marlon Mack– The Colts are ranked seventh in rushing and he’s the main back averaging 4.7 yards per carry with a few touchdowns under his belt. He’ll be an important factor in this game to help keep Mahomes and that video game like offense on the sideline.
Chiefs Player to Watch-: Damien Williams– After the drama with Kareem Hunt last season, he stepped in and gave them a number one option in the backfield. He’s a shifty runner with the ability to get to the second level of the defense and take off. He’s a three-down back, something you don’t see in this league too much.
Final Analysis: When we saw these two teams meet the last time, it was in the divisional round of the playoffs with Patrick Mahomes making his postseason debut. This would also the final game of Andrew Luck’s career. It’s extremely important for the Colts to get their pass rush going early on because they can’t afford to let Mahomes sit back in the pocket and pick them apart like they did back in January. The Colts defensive line’s whole focus will be getting that rush because they don’t have the guys in the secondary to cover these Chiefs weapons. We know what the Chiefs can do offensively. They can score with ease. Defensively, there’s still some questions because they give up points and a lot of big plays down the field but playing against the Colts, can they stop the run? That’s what I’m looking forward to seeing.
Prediction: Chiefs 35 Colts 28
