Laddie Morse
So the saga goes on and on. This week the Kansas City Chiefs travel back to the place they won the last Super Bowl: Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Only this time, they’ll be coming full circle and playing the Raiders, the last team to beat them… on Christmas Day of 2023. Since then, the Chiefs have been on a twelve game winning streak.
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Since that time, they’ve beaten:
• the Bengals 25-to-17 (in Arrowhead Stadium)
• the Chargers 13-to-12 (in SoFi Stadium)
• the Dolphins 26-to-7 (in Arrowhead in the fourth coldest game ever)
• the Bills 27-to-24 (in Highmark Stadium),
• the Ravens 17-to-10 (in M&T Bank Stadium for the AFC Championship)
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• the 49ers 25-to-22 (in Super Bowl LVIII in Allegiant Stadium)
plus the six wins this season over:
• the Ravens 27-to-20 (in Arrowhead)
• the Bengals 26-to-25 (in Arrowhead)
• the Falcons 22-to-17 (in Mercedes-Benz Stadium)
• the Chargers 17-to-10 (in SoFi Stadium
• the Saints 26-to-13 (in Arrowhead)
• the 49ers 28-to-18 (in Levi’s Stadium).
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Now, the Chiefs return to Allegiant Stadium to take on the Raiders, later today at 3:25 in the afternoon.
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Statement Game
Some believe this will be a statement game for the Chiefs.
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I will admit, that this week, of all weeks in the season to this point, the Chiefs appear primed to win in blowout fashion. Based upon what the Raiders were able to do on Christmas day last year, plus the outcome of the Chiefs last two games (a 16 point win and a 10 point win), I believe a blowout in the Chiefs favor, is not only a possibility, but a probability (0:55).
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The DeAndre Hopkins Factor
Some may be wondering if I’m taking the addition of WR DeAndre Hopkins (DHop) too much into consideration. I can tell you that I’ve thought that one through and… I don’t think so. The first question that must be answered is: will DHop play?
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Reid has confirmed that DHop will play vs the Raiders (because he’s pretty darn smart)… so the next question is, how much? DHop was drafted in 2013 (27th pick overall by the Texans) and since his first season, including that year, in 9 out of 10 seasons he’s played in, he’s been in on 88% of the offensive snaps, or more. Last year he was in on 72% of the offensive snaps and this season he was in on 47% of the snaps. I would guess that DHop will be in on 50% of the Chiefs Offensive snaps today. Since his new contract with the Chiefs requires him to play on 60% of the snaps, and make it to a Super Bowl, Id’ guess he’ll be ready to play on that many snaps, but with Reid and Nagy calling the shots, my guess is it will be somewhere in the 50-ish percentiles.
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The DHop Advantage
When Deandre Hopkins is in the game, he should often draw a double team in coverage. That means Travis Kelce will either be doubled or DHop will. If the Raiders somehow figure out how to double both, then RB Kareem Hunt should have his best day yet. It should mean more caches for both Kelce and DHop and more catches for anyone of the Chiefs skill plays not name Kelce or Hopkins.
Another advantage of having DeAndre Hopkins lined up as a WR for the Chiefs are his lack of drops:
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DeAndre Hopkins has started 110 games out of 110 games he played in. That’s phenomenal. Yes, and the question remains, is DHop too old to make an impact on the Chiefs offense? We’ll see, but I seriously doubt it. IOW, he’ll have a huge impact.
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Felix Anudike-Uzomah (FAU)
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FAU is having a very good year so far:
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Injury Reports
Here’s the Raiders Injury Report following Saturday’s practice:
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Matt Conner at ArrowheadAddict wrote a piece called, “Chiefs vs Raiders injury report: Maxx Crosby expected to play in Week 8″, so it looks like Maxx Crosby will be playing in this game after all. He was listed on their Injury report earlier this week which raised some questions about his playing in this game… but it now looks as if Crosby will be playing. Does anyone doubt that he’d be playing in this game???
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Here’s the Chiefs Injury Report:
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The biggest question I had here was that earlier in the week the Chiefs had listed Safety Justin Reid on this report but now he doesn’t show up there at all. Also, JuJu Smith-Schuster is listed as out. In a piece for the ChiefsWire called, “Chiefs vs Raiders injury report: Latest status updates, news for Week 8,” Andrew Garcia says:
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“Starting wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster is dealing
with a hamstring injury that forced him to leave the field
during the 49ers matchup. He did not participate in today’s
practice. Coaches have indicated he is expected to be out
against the Raiders.”
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With many analysts thinking QB Patrick Mahomes has lost his magic and spark, Seth Keysor wrote a piece called, “Patrick Mahomes Week 7 film review: Better than I thought” in which he said (Keysor’s site requires a subscription):
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“It was a game that was partly defined by a few key
missed plays (in a game where the offense took
limited shots), and partly defined by the yards
Mahomes created under duress.”
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Plus, Keysor then shared this gif:
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Keysor then went on to point out:
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“The fact that none of us even twitched when Mahomes
made this throw says something about how inoculated we’ve
become to seeing him do weird stuff. And that’s part of
why, in my opinion, many of us (myself included) didn’t
realize that he played well in Week 7 overall during a
(of course) weird game.”
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Rich Eisen & Tom Pelissero on DeAndre Hopkins
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(2:38)
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My Prediction for this game is:
Chiefs 38,
Raiders 10.
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What do you think?
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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