Monday Night Football features The Kansas City Chiefs (5-2) hosting the Denver Broncos (3-3) at Arrowhead Stadium as another AFC West showdown takes center stage on national television.
After starting the season with five consecutive victories the Chiefs have now lost two straight games by a total of seven points. That was the first time in over two years that Kansas City has lost consecutive games.
As we reach the halfway mark of the year, Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt continues his historic and impressive play.
Hunt is leading the league in rushing yards per game (102.4) and has become the second player in NFL history, along with Hall of Famer Erick Dickerson, with over a thousand scrimmage yards in his first seven games.
The problem for Kansas City is the recent consistency struggles of the Chiefs offensive line as they are helping the running backs get 151.2 yards per game in the five wins, but just 61 in the two losses.
Hunt is averaging just 70 yards per game in the last two weeks in back-to-back losses to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Oakland Raiders.
The struggling Denver Broncos will have to focus on containing Hunt to under 100 yards if they want to have a chance at beating the Chiefs on the road.
The Chiefs defensive unit also must get its act together as in the last two weeks it has allowed a big breakout game to an opposing receiver or tight end. The latest example, the once dormant Amari Cooper who went for over 200 yards against the Chiefs in week 7.
On paper, the Broncos, also losers of two ugly straight defeats, are not showing enough firepower to keep up with the explosive Kansas City offense as they are dealing with offensive issues that considerably outweighs the Chiefs’ defensive concerns.
The Broncos offense is broken and it all starts with quarterback Trevor Siemian. His performance level hardly scares any opposing defense and they are challenging him to win games by himself by stacking the box and taking away the Broncos run.
The Broncos defense, which allows just 18.7 points per game since 2015, would have to be considered their biggest hope for winning this game, but Denver’s ineptitude on offense will once again prove to be the biggest obstacle to overcome as the Chiefs will comfortably win this one at home led by Hunt and quarterback Alex Smith.
