Laddie Morse

When the league drew up the Kansas City Chiefs 2021 schedule, this week was not originally considered to be this difficult. Since then, the Cincinnati Bengals have gone 9-and-6 and currently lead the AFC North by one game. So, while the Chiefs are playing for the first week playoff Bye, the Bengals are playing to win their division. Let’s begin by taking a look at who will be playing in this game:

The Chiefs Injury Report:

I’m not concerned that Clyde Edwards-Helaire is not available for this game. With Jerick McKinnon ready to go, it gives Andy Reid a good 1-2-3 punch at running back with Darrel Williams, Derrick Gore, and McKinnon.

The Bengals Injury Report:

Cam Sample is a rotational DE and Jalen Davis is a backup CB so it looks like both teams are nearly at full strength.

Joe Burrow

The Bengals offense won’t be taken lightly by DC Steve Spagnuolo.

That’s high praise for sure. However, it could also be Spags buttering up the opposition. If there is something to be learned about Joe Burrow from Clyde Edwards-Helaire, I’m sure the Chiefs already know what that is.

From ESPN comes Mike Tannenbaum’s QB Rankings based on QBR:

Joe Burrow is in his second season as a starter and is in the top five based on QBR. QBR is a proprietary statistic created by ESPN in 2011 to measure the performance of quarterbacks contributions to winning, like: passes, rushes, turnovers, and penalties. QBR is not to be confused with “Passer Rating.” Patrick Mahomes is currently 5th in Passer Rating and Joe Burrow is 6th.

Bengals Running Back

Joe Mixon has 1,159 rushing yards this season is considerably better than any RB the Chiefs have on their roster. The Bengals don’t use Mixon a lot as a receiver out of the backfield much but he does have 274 yards receiving this year, so that must be respected as well. It’s odd that the Bengals #2 RB is Samaje Perine who was Mixon’s backup while at Oklahoma. Both played with Orlando Brown Jr..

Wide Receivers

Tee Higgins and J’Marr Chase are both 1,000 yard receivers. Chase is a rookie who played with Burrow at LSU and they have picked right up where they left off in college. Throw Tyler Boyd into their mix of WRs and you have one of the best trios in the league.

Who would you take?

If you had to choose which receiving core to take over the other, who would you take? The Cincinnati foursome, or the Bengals foursome? The Bolts possess: QB Justin Herbert, WR Mike Williams, WR Keenan Allen, TE Jared Cook… or… the Bengals possess: QB Joe Burrow, WR Tee Higgins, WR J’Marr Chase, and TE C.J. Uzomah?

The Point Is!

The Chiefs full strength defensive backfield should have an easier — not sure if that’s the right word??? — time covering the Bengals receiving core than they had covering the Chargers.

Patrick Mahomes

We often think of Mahomes as having an up and down season, mostly because of his interceptions (13). Many of those were not caught by a Chiefs WR and went right through their hands and into the hands of a defender. Some will say he threw the ball too hard, or was behind on a throw. However, if you look at each throw, for the most part, those were all catchable balls.

Seth Keysor wrote a piece on Mahomes this week called: “Patrick Mahomes Week 16 review, featuring Byron Pringle” (subscription required) in which he shared,

Let’s not forget how talented Mahomes is and how many throws he makes that other QBs wouldn’t ever think of making.

Running Backs

Darrell Williams, Derrick Gore (a favorite of mine), and Jerick McKinnon (a speedy RB — 4.41 — and faster than Damien — 4.45 — Williams), will give the Chiefs a formidable trio of ground threats. Would I rather have Joe Mixon’s on-the-field talents? Yes.

Chiefs Defense

SportNaut.com ranks the Bengals defense as the 20th best defense while the same ranking has the Chiefs at #9. So, does Patrick Mahomes or Joe Burrow have a tougher time sledding up hill? That’s definitely the Bengals. I’m so excited about he Chiefs defensive progress I can’t wait to see them handle a team like the Bengals when they’re playing at Home and have all those intangible advantages as well. We should get a much better view of the Chiefs overall defensive abilities by 3:30 CST today. I won’t be at all surprised to see the Chiefs D hold the Bengals offense to 17 points (David Bell’s old magic number) or less this week.

Special Teams

FootballOutsiders.com ranks the Chiefs Special Teams as the 2nd best unit in the NFL and the Bengals as the 7th best.

Average Age

The Bengals are the tenth youngest team in the NFL, while the Chiefs are now the 23rd. Does that make a Bengals team the up and coming team more than the Chiefs? Who knows. What we do know is that these Chiefs have known how to win games for a long time now, no matter who they’re putting on the field.

Weather Report

This game between the Chiefs and he Bengals will be played in the open air Paul Brown Stadium, first opened in 2000.

Deciding Factors

A week ago, without Travis Kelce, we’d been looking for that 3rd receiving threat, then, may have found him in the person of Byron Pringle. His catch and run TD — or I should say, catch and duck TD — was his best play of this career.

If Pringle can be that first option… much like a good basketball team going inside to their all-star center to begin a game… it will open things up for all the other Chiefs receivers. That could spell death for the Bengals.

If the Chiefs pass rush can put pressure on Joe Burrow with a four-man rush, it’s game over for them. If not, then Spags will need to employ some blitz packages to make Burrow consistently uncomfortable in the pocket. If not, it may be a huge problem for the Chiefs DBs.

PFF (ProFootball Focus) has ranked the Bengals Offensive Line as the 22nd best in the league (the Chiefs OL is ranked #4), so Mahomes should have all the time he needs to step up and shred their DBs. Plus, the running game should benefit as well. PFF says of the Bengals OL:

“Pass blocking is the biggest issue for this group, with just one starter (Jonah Williams) earning a grade higher than 65.0 in that area.”

Chiefs DBs should be at full strength which means, Tyrann Mathieu and L’Jarius Sneed should be interchangeable in the slot and Joe Burrow will have a hard time deciphering the coverages. Pluses all day for K.C..

A “Prove-It” Game

This is ultimately, a “Prove-it” game. Charles Goldman at ChiefsWire.com points out that the national media has been touting Joe Burrow as a better QB than Patrick Mahomes and that the defense has been under fire all season because of the way they started out. Goldman says:

“I feel like the defense is going to be coming for their respect in this game, while Patrick Mahomes is going to be out to prove that he’s still the best player in the game.”

I couldn’t agree more.

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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