KC Chiefs Vs Carolina Panthers: Rating the Match-Ups
The KC Chiefs will hit the road this weekend to square off against the Carolina Panthers. Who has the advantage at each position?
It’s week ten of the 2016 NFL regular season and that means it’s time for the Kansas City Chiefs to face their second NFC South opponent this year. They saw the Saints in week seven and beat them, and now it’s time to do the same thing to the Carolina Panthers.
The Panthers won the NFC last year to the tune of a 15-1 record. They ultimately fell to the Broncos in the Super Bowl, but many expected them to be right back to the big game again in 2016 (2017 technically, I guess).
Instead, Carolina had already lost more games in just three weeks of the season then they did during the entire regular season last year. They were definitely underperforming, but now after starting 1-5, they’re 3-5 and pushing to get back into the thick of things. Hmm, sounds familiar.
The Panthers have a dominant team out there in Carolina and it’ll be tough for the Chiefs to go on the road and steal victory from a surging team. Fans should know this all too well, as we went through the exact same thing this time last year.
So, without further ado, let’s check out the positional match-ups and who has the edge.
Quarterback
Smith or Newton?
This one isn’t particularly close at all. Cam Newton is the reigning MVP and despite his team’s struggles so far this season, he’s still one of the best quarterbacks in the entire league.
He’s thrown for 1,733 yards and nine touchdowns so far this season (he’s rushed for three scores as well) in seven starts. He did miss a game due to injury, so he and Alex Smith have played in the same amount of games.
Alex Smith is back as the starter for Kansas City this weekend. As happy as we are to have him back, he’s not better than Cam Newton. He’s only thrown one less touchdown than Cam, but has only found the end zone once with his legs.
It’s also worth noting that Newton has thrown six interceptions to Smith’s two. Newton tends to throw the ball down the field more though, which puts him at further risk of throwing for more picks.
The only thing these two really have in common is that they were both number one overall picks and like to run from time to time. Although neither have really done a lot of scrambling this year.