Chiefs: Prepping For The N.Y. Giants

It’s time to take a look at the Kansas City Chiefs as they prepare to face the New York Giants in New York tomorrow.

Winning the GA/TA Differential is a Must

I’d like to start by saying, if the Kansas City Chiefs don’t beat themselves on Sunday vs the N.Y. Giants, they should win going away. The Chiefs are currently #2 in the league in the give-away/take-away differential with a plus +9 and the Giants are #20 with a negative -2. K.C. has twice as many INTs as N.Y. with 8 and the Chiefs have thrown 2 INTs while the Giants have thrown 6. Now… unless Andy Reid gets silly with his play calling again, it’s not likely that Tyreek Hill will be lining up at QB and required to throw another forward pass… which resulted in one of those INTs.

Look For Kareem Hunt’s Success

Early if the Chiefs Are Going to Win

Of course, the GA/TA Differential is not a stat that can be tallied until the end of a game. One way to tell if the Chiefs offense is going to be successful all day long is if they can get a good push up front early and Kareem Hunt is able to go off on their first drive. If not, you can expect Andy Reid to continue to butt his head against the brick wall of the Giants rushing-defense and it will fall upon the shoulders of Alex Smith, Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill and the passing game, if the Chiefs are to come out on top.

Alex Smith Must Play Angry, Like Someone’s About to Take His Job Away, Which is True

If the Chiefs running game is effective early on, their passing game should flourish as Alex Smith is second in the league to only Drew Brees (71.7%) in passing percentage at 69.6% (of active QBs who have at least 200 passing attempts). Smith also leads the league in passer rating (of those same group of QBs) with a 113.9 rating. In any case, Alex Smith MUST get his MOJO back for the Chiefs to have a chance at a ring this year.

The Long Ball Give and Take

Remember the numbers 8 and 5. B.J. Kissel pointed out recently that the Chiefs have had 8 plays of 40 yards or longer, which leads the NFL. While the Giants have given up 5 plays of 40 yards or longer… which also leads the league. Perhaps we will get to witness a perfect storm tomorrow and the Chiefs will be living big… as in, “big plays.” Watch out for those plays. There’s a fairly high likelihood of that happening Sunday.

Pressure is a Must For the Defense

In Justin Houston’s first four seasons, in which he played 59 games, he had 48.5 sacks for a .82 average sacks per game. In the past 2 1/2 years he’s appeared in 25 games and had 19 sacks for a .76 sacks per game average. While sacks are wonderful, and don’t get me wrong, I think the Chiefs need a major upgrade in this department, it’s the amount of pressure they are able — or not able — to place on opposing QB which is the problem. If they can make Eli Manning uncomfortable tomorrow, they should have a lot of success in this game defensively. The Chiefs system has depended upon the front 7 making life for other team’s quarterbacks very difficult in years past and their DBs have been able to supply the coverage necessary for them to get to the target — the QB — but that hasn’t happened very much this year. Both the front 7 and the men in coverage have not executed as in the past… and this one fact alone has made for the Chiefs inability to be consistent in all aspects of the game. When you can’t stop anyone — running or passing wise — it causes challenges in all phases of the game.

TE Travis Kelce Could Have a Career Day

The Giants LB core is a mess. While they have a good group of cornerbacks, their starting MLB, B.J. Goodwin, is ruled out against the Chiefs. Starting SLB Devon Kennard is Questionable because he’s fighting a quadricep injury and another LB, Kelvin Sheppard, has a groin problem and is also Questionable. If the G-men place a corner on Kelce — no matter how good they are — look for Travis to dominate the middle of the field. Of course, there are very few LBs with the speed and quickness to cover Kelce anyway.

For the G-Men it’s All Up to Eli

When the Giants have the ball, you can count on them passing it, and passing it a lot. Their leading rusher, Orleans Darkwa, is 25th in the league in rushing with 415 yards gained… and an average of 10.1 carries in each game. Consequently, if the Giants are to win, they’ll have to rely on a heavy dose of Eli Manning. Although the Giants will be playing the rest of the year without their three best WRs in Odell Beckham, Brandon Marshall and Dwayne Harris, it’s the passing of Eli Manning which is still their best hope for success.

Chiefs Should Win the Matchup Chess Game

KC has had a bad run defense but… NY has had a worse running game. With the Giants LG Justin Pugh listed as out for this game, the Chiefs DL should match up well against their OL: look for Allen Bailey to breakout. When the Giants line up on defense, D-linemen Jason Pierre-Paul, Olivier Vernon, Damon Harrison, and Dalvin Tomlinson, should all match up well against the Chiefs front wall OL. In fact, that may be the best battle of the day. The Giants WRs vs the Chiefs DBs should be a good matchup for KC. The Chiefs WR-ing corp should do well against the Giants defensive backfield… although that may be the strength of their team.

The Coaching Battle Should Go to Andy

There are plenty of New York fans and analysts alike, who thought that the Giants head coach would be gone after last weeks loss to the Seattle Seahawks, 24-7. Many were calling for the coaches head and thought that some players had “quit” during the game. Their players have publicly denied it and vowed to make a come back vs. the Chiefs. Although the Chiefs will have to bring their best game plan to win this one on the road — I hate to face teams who feel they are backed into a corner and call their next game a “prove-it” game — head coach Ben McAdo appears to be out of his league both in this game… and on the season. Not only that but Reid is like, a Zillion-to-2, in games following the Bye Week.

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