Next week the Kansas City Chiefs play the Buffalo Bills.
Might tonight, when they host the Washington Commanders, be a game that could catch them looking ahead and get surprised on their home field?
While that could be a reason to take the bloated double-digit line tonight with the Marcus Mariota led visitors, I believe it is faulty thinking. I don’t think this Kansas City squad has an opportunity to look ahead. No, they have to deal with what is right in front of them based on two primary factors: they lost three of their first five games and the two teams they are chasing in the AFC West, the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers, both won yesterday.
Nope, the Chiefs are playing them one at a time now, and after that rocky first month they have won their two most recent games in convincing fashion, 30-17 over the Detroit Lions and 31-0 over the Las Vegas Raiders. Both those Patrick Mahomes led victories were played on their home field, as is tonight’s battle against the Jayden Daniels-less Commanders.
I did not have the Commanders rated as high coming into this season as most football experts did. Daniels had a great rookie season, even a notch above the fabulous rookie quarterback campaign registered a year earlier by C.J. Stroud. But great rookie campaigns are often followed by second-year struggles.
The reasons second-year quarterbacks who excelled in their first professional campaign can have second-season problems are twofold. First, expectations are so high that they level the actual play and second, defensive coordinators have had time to study what made that rookie excel and design defenses to blunt that success.