Kansas City Chiefs can’t look past Arizona Cardinals in week 10

By Leigh Oleszczak | Nov 6, 2018

GLENDALE, AZ - OCTOBER 28: Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Christian Kirk (13) celebrates with Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald (11), Arizona Cardinals center Mason Cole (64) and teammates after scoring a touchdown in game action during an NFL game between the Arizona Cardinals and the San Francisco 49ers on October 28, 2018 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The Kansas City Chiefs are 8-1 and they’ll get an opponent who has won just two games so far this season in the Arizona Cardinals. Despite the poor record, the Chiefs can’t afford to look past the Birds.

Heading into week ten of the NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs are the most heavily favored team this week and probably a lot of people’s “Survivor” pick. The reason for that is that the 8-1 Chiefs are hosting a 2-6 Arizona Cardinals team that has looked, for the most part, pretty pitiful this year.

The Cardinals had a lot happen in the offseason, as their head coach (Bruce Arians) retired as did starting quarterback Carson Palmer. That forced the Cardinals to bring in a slew of free agent quarterbacks during the offseason in Sam Bradford and Mike Glennon and also trade up to draft Josh Rosen in the first round of this year’s draft.

Bradford would start just three games before being benched in favor of Rosen, who has started every game since then. The rookie quarterback out of UCLA hasn’t been very good, but in his defense, he is a rookie with a really bad team. Rosen has thrown for just over 1,000 yards in his six games so far with five touchdowns and six interceptions.

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With the Chiefs now facing a rookie quarterback for the second straight week, it might be easy to overlook Rosen and the Cardinals, but that’s not wise to do. Arizona isn’t very good, no, and it certainly doesn’t help their case that they’re playing at Arrowhead, but they do have talented players on both sides of the ball.

David Johnson was one of the best running backs in the league not long ago and has five touchdowns on the year thus far. Johnson left the Cardinals’ last game with a concussion, however, and might not suit up for the Birds come Sunday.

Larry Fitzgerald is also a name to watch and he could really eat against the Chiefs secondary. Fitzgerald deserves better than the Cardinals in his final year, but he’s the team’s best weapon with over 350 yards and two touchdowns this year. He had over 100 yards receiving in Arizona’s win over the 49ers a few weeks ago.

Defensively, the Cardinals aren’t awful, especially in their secondary. Patrick Peterson, a name a lot of Chiefs fans were hoping would be linked to Kansas City in trade talks, is still at the top of his game. Hopefully Patrick Mahomes has no issues trying to make plays against Peterson and company.

In years past, the Kansas City Chiefs have lost some stinkers and if the team looks past this one, that could be the same story. Last year, the Chiefs lost three ugly games in a row to the Giants, Jets, and Bills and the year prior they dropped winnable home games to the Buccaneers and the Titans.

A lot is at stake for the Chiefs at the moment. They currently hold the best record in the AFC with just one loss on their resumé while the Patriots have two. The Pats hold the tiebreaker over KC, so it’s even more important that the Chiefs keep winning.

It’s easy to look past this weekend’s game against the Arizona Cardinals and toward that Monday Night affair in Mexico City versus the Rams, but that’s a big no no in the NFL. Yes, that Chiefs/Rams game is going to be a blast, but first thing’s first, Kansas City has to get past a beaten down Cardinals team before even thinking about Mexico City.

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