Laddie Morse
The last time these two teams met, just 17 days ago, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Denver Broncos with one touchdown and four field goals in a 19-to-8 battle. That was positive for Harrison Butker because he didn’t miss a kick and hsn’t missed a kick this whole season. Though that game was at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, this game is in Denver at Empower Mile High Stadium, and if the Super Bowl Champion Chiefs don’t watch out, they could be headed home with a defeat on their hands. However, that’s not likely as many an NFL analysts has suggested. Here are some predictions for this game from NFL writers and analysts:
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ArrowheadOne has this prediction from David Bell: 34-to-17.
My own prediction is: 38-to-14. Hopefully, the Chief will win going away today.
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The Weather
The forecast from Weather.com doesn’t look bad until you realize that snow is expected all night long on Saturday night until 11:00 AM or later on Sunday morning.
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Not to worry becasue Chiefs quarterback plays well in the snow.
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Some fans are actually hoping for a snow-game:
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That last tweet was from a couple of days ago so the forecast for 30° is premature… and not as accurate as the weather.com forecast taken from yesterday.
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The Ins and Outs
Some player won’t be playing in this game… and soem will who we weren’t expecting. The Chiefs Justyn Ross is not on the Commissioners’ Exempt list (which measn he can’t play until the league is done investigating his situation).
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The Broncos 35 year old Safety, Kareem Jackson will be out for the next four games for a helmet-to-helmet hit in last weeks game (see above). As expected, a Chiefs player would be elevated to the active roster because LB Nick Bolton had his wrist operated on this week, so Deon Bush comes in to assist the Chiefs defense.
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Swift Kick in the Pants
It’s my understanding that Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce’s girlfriend, will NOT be in attendance at the Chiefs-Broncos game in Denver today. However, there is a tweet out there that gives us a certain K.C. perspective on how much success our Chiefs have had over the Broncos in recent years while counting in Taylor-Time:
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Other teams have even joined in the Swift-Kicophony (0:02):
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Travis Kelce has attneded Taylor Swift’s Concerts since she couldn’t make it to Denver (0:20):
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Referee Assignment
Brad Allen and his crew have drawn the assignment for this game. Warren Sharp says, “Allen’s crews have called an above average rate of penalties on road teams….” Last week, Allen’s crew missed an obvious face mask foul on the Eagles cornerback James Bradberry. His crew also missed a roughing the passer call on DT Christian Wilkins of the Dolphins. Two years ago, Brad Allen and his crew refereed two Chiefs games and K.C. lost 27-3 on the road at Nissan Stadium to the Titans. Allen did them no favors in that game, calling 9 penalties on the Chiefs while only calling 6 on the Titans. Looks like the Chiefs will be playing against the Broncos AND the refs today!
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Cold Weather Players Reprise
Ron Kopp wrote a piece for ArrowheadPride called, “Trey Smith prefers the colder games, ‘Cold weather is big guy weather’” in which he quoted Trey Smith as saying he likes cold weather games as well as Patrick Mahomes does (mentioned above):
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“Cold weather is big guy weather. I prefer it. You can play and sustain a lot longer, especially on longer drives; you feel better when you get the juices flowing. To me, I’ve always preferred cold weather over hot or warm weather, but at the end of the day, however — cold or hot — it is, put the ball down and let’s play.”
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The Chiefs offense woke up this past week with the game against the Chargers by scoring four TDs through the air. Plus, QB Patrick Mahomes had his best game of the year with a QB Rating of 129.5. It will be telling to see if Mahomes and his young Wide Receiving corp can extend their streak of excellent play and come away with a clean, and large, victory.
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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