The Denver Broncos closed out last year’s regular season at Arrowhead Stadium against their longtime division rivals, the Kansas City Chiefs. The prior week, the Chiefs had locked up the top playoff seed in the American Football Conference, and the Broncos needed a win to assure a Wild Card berth.
The Chiefs didn’t need it, had already won 15 of 16 regular season games, and the game was big for the Broncos. With that as the lead-in the obvious happened, the books made the Broncos an 11-point road favorite and they blew away the home team, 38-0.
Now, one year later, the Broncos are again heading to Arrowhead and are this year looking for the top seed for the AFC playoffs and the Chiefs have nothing to play for. The difference this season is the Chiefs have nothing to play for because they have been eliminated from the playoffs.
So, will this result be different?
Will the Chiefs pride emerge from their disappointing season, and can they survive the Broncos visit while the home team is forced to be led on the field by a third-string quarterback?
The books don’t think so … the Broncos are 13-point road favorites.
What we have learned this season and last is the Chiefs don’t care about games that don’t matter, and you can’t give them enough points to compensate for the final score. Last season, the bloated 11-point line was eclipsed by 27 points. Last week, in the first game the Chiefs played in a decade without a playoff berth on their horizon, they went into Tennessee and were underdogs to the Titans. The final score topped the line by two touchdowns
Underdogs to the Titans!?
For those of you who have missed following this ragtag group out of Music City, they are among the worst teams on the field and led by an even worse operation in the front office. A couple years ago, their volatile owner was offended when her head coach, Mike Vrabel, accepted an honor at Gillette Stadium when his team was visiting the Patriots. Vrabel acknowledged the New England fans and pointed out how lucky they were to be able to root for an organization that served them so well.
Amy Adams Strunk, Titans owner, took her head coach’s comments as an affront to her, and his, current organization. The ceremony served to create a chasm in the relationship between coach and owner and when that happens you know who always wins out … maybe not win, but gets their way … the owner.
Despite his success with the Titans which included the best record in the conference just a few seasons ago, Strunk led the effort to fire Vrabel and take her franchise on a Titanic direction. The Titans are among the worst teams in football, had won only two games this season when they hosted the Chiefs last Sunday, and as previously mentioned, were favored by the books over Andy Reid’s team.
The books were right … again … as the 3-point home favorites pinned the visiting Chiefs with a 26-9 loss.
If the Titans can beat this the Chiefs when Kansas City doesn’t need the game and this week KC meets the Broncos who still have a lot to play for, what do you think is going to happen this Sunday at Arrowhead?
The books think the Broncos will roll the Chiefs on their home field; Denver is a 13-point road favorite. I think the books are right again.
Qoxhi Picks: Denver Broncos (-13) over Kansas City Chiefs