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Kansas City Chiefs Have Seventh Toughest Schedule In 2015

By Leigh Oleszczak

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After a season in which the Kansas City Chiefs went 9-7 and barely missed out on the playoffs, fans are looking forward to what 2015 has in store for their beloved hometown team. 2015, however, looks to be yet another tough year for the Chiefs.

The Kansas City Chiefs, like 2014, have the seventh toughest schedule in the NFL this upcoming season, according to John Breech of CBS Sports. The Chiefs’ 2015 season will see them playing against the AFC North, NFC North, Houston, Buffalo, and obviously the teams in the AFC West two times each.

Yes, the schedule looks intimidating as of now, but the Chiefs also had the seventh toughest schedule last season, according to ESPN, and ended the season with a winning record.

Last year, the Oakland Raiders had the most difficult schedule, and Breech went into further detail about just how much strength of schedule can matter.

"After all 256 regular season games were played, it turned out that the Raiders did have the toughest strength of schedule (their opponents combined to go 146-110) and Oakland finished 3-13. Although this is the Raiders we’re talking about, so it’s possible they would have gone 3-13 with the easiest schedule."

The Raiders actually tie with the Chiefs for seventh toughest schedule for the 2015 season, but Kansas City should have the edge over the 3-13 Oakland team last year. Both teams’ opponents for 2015 held 139-116-1 records last season with a .545 winning percentage.

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The Pittsburgh Steelers have the toughest schedule for 2015. The Steelers will visit Arrowhead Stadium, in what will hopefully be a revenge game for all of the beat downs Pittsburgh has put on the Chiefs in the past few meetings.

The Atlanta Falcons will have the easiest schedule in 2015 after having a disappointing season in 2014. The NFC South falls in the bottom six because they all had losing records in 2014 and obviously will play each other next year. Unfortunately, Kansas City won’t play the NFC South this upcoming season.

2015 will see Kansas City playing six playoff teams (Green Bay, Detroit, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Denver) and nine teams who posed winning records the season prior (all of the ones mentioned plus Buffalo, Houston, and San Diego).

It won’t necessarily be an easy feat, but as I mentioned before, Kansas City had the seventh toughest schedule last year and ended up having a fairly impressive season. They took down the two eventual Super Bowl teams (New England and Seattle; In fact, they completely dominated New England on Monday Night Football), came back to win against the Bills in the fourth quarter, and swept the Chargers (one of those games being led by backup quarterback Chase Daniel).

In other words, yes, strength of schedule is important, but the Kansas City Chiefs were able to overcome it the year prior and end their season with a winning record.

Next: KC Chiefs Haven't Had Much Luck With First Round Receivers

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