The Kansas City Chiefs are one of the hottest teams in football, having won five in-a-row and seven of their last eight. They have some really good wins over Miami, Buffalo, New England, San Diego, and the Seattle Seahawks. All of those teams mentioned are in the hunt for the playoffs, making them crucial wins for Kansas City as well.
However, the Chiefs have had a let down this year at the hands of the Tennessee Titans back in week one.
The Chiefs didn’t show up in that game, turning the ball over several times and struggled to get big stops against a lackluster Titans offense. The reason this is being brought up is because the Chiefs are on the road this Thursday night against long time division rival, the Oakland Raiders.
The Raiders are yet to win a game (0-10), having lost their last 16 games dating back to last season. Are the Raiders a bad football team? Yes, that’s why they are win-less but, don’t let them fool you. This team has talent and were one possession away from tying the game in San Diego on Sunday.
The final score of the game was 13-6, as the Chargers were able to hold on and end their three game losing streak. This was with the Chargers getting healthy again too. They started Ryan Matthews, Manti Te’o, and Melvin Ingram who all had been out since September.
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So why does this matter to the Chiefs? Because this Raiders team is desperate for a win and they fought the Chargers to the very end. The Chiefs should expect nothing less and they have to understand that it’s hard to beat a team that has nothing to lose.
They must also understand that the Raiders would love nothing more than to knock the Chiefs off their winning streak and take them out of the tie with Denver for first place. Speaking of Denver, the Raiders gave them a fit too in their week 10 match-up opening the game with 10 unanswered points.
To the Chiefs, this has potential to be an old fashion trap game. They’re coming off a hard hitting emotional victory over Seattle and immediately have to travel to the west coast four days later. When will the NFL give the Chiefs a Thursday night game at home?
You can expect this game to go one of two ways. The first being that the Chiefs go out there and handle business, much like last season when Jamaal Charles scored five touchdowns. The other being that the Chiefs allow the Raiders to hang around all four quarters and the Raiders escape with their first win in 17 tries.
The Chiefs MUST avoid this being a trap game. Securing a win in Oakland will set things up perfectly for them for week 13 when they host the Broncos on Sunday night.
Two things that should make Chiefs fans confident about this game is one, Andy Reid, and two, the Chiefs defense. Coach Reid understands what’s at stake here and should have his team prepared and not looking ahead at Denver. As far as the defense goes, it’s the old cliche: Defense travels in the NFL.
We’ll just have to see how it plays out.