Kansas City Chiefs: Early season schedule absolutely brutal

By Leigh Oleszczak | Aug 4, 2018

(Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The Kansas City Chiefs will have a tough time getting the ball rolling in 2018, as the early part of their schedule is quite difficult.

The first game of the regular season for the Kansas City Chiefs will involve a trip to Los Angeles to face the Chargers. The Bolts gave KC a run for their money last year, but ultimately went 0-2 against the good guys and lost out on the AFC West.

Los Angeles hasn’t defeated the Chiefs since the 2013 season, so one would think they’re due for a win, but KC has simply had their number over the last half decade. Regardless of their recent success over that time, traveling to the Chargers’ home turf in week one won’t be easy.

It certainly won’t get any better from there, as week two will see the Chiefs head to Pittsburgh for a battle with the Steelers. In the same way that KC has had LA’s number recently, the Steelers have had the Chiefs’ number. That game won’t be a walk in the park and it being on the road further complicates things.

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In week three, the Chiefs finally get to host a game, but it’s not against a slouch of an opponent. No, the San Francisco 49ers will be coming to Arrowhead and it’ll be a new and improved Niners squad.

The 49ers are a lot of people’s “dark horse candidate” to make the playoffs this year. I put that in quotes because it seems like everyone is picking them to make the postseason after a few down years.

Week four will see the Chiefs hitting the road yet again (their third road game in their first four games) and this time it’ll be a Monday Night Football affair in Denver. The Chiefs have been handling the Broncos with ease over the last two years, but both teams have new quarterbacks now so it’s a whole new ball game between these two.

Week five takes place at Arrowhead, but the Jacksonville Jaguars are the visiting team. A year ago, not many people would have viewed the Jaguars as a difficult opponent, but they made it all the way to the AFC Championship Game last year and were pretty dang close to making it to the Super Bowl.

The sixth game of the season is a road game in Foxboro against the New England Patriots, who always seem to host the Chiefs rather than travel to Kansas City. The Patriots are the Patriots so they’re obviously not to be taken lightly. This game is also a primetime affair, as it’s the Sunday Night Football match-up for week six.

Those first six games are going to be really tough for the Kansas City Chiefs, so we’ll learn a lot about the team during that time. Will they compete with tougher teams in the league despite having a new quarterback or will they take a step or two back?

Some might think the Kansas City Chiefs still have a legitimate shot to win the AFC West this year, but these first six games will be telling for the organization. If they can come out of those slate of games with at least a 3-3 record, that’d be a big accomplishment.

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