Broncos vs. Chargers: What’s At Stake For Kansas City
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The Kansas City Chiefs are perched high above the AFC West at 9-0, and even though the team is on a bye week, there’s still a lot at stake on this NFL Sunday.
At the very least, this is a perfect opportunity for Andy Reid and his staff to sit back, put some popcorn in the microwave, turn on CBS and watch two divisional opponents go at it.
The Peyton Manning-led Denver Broncos are at Qualcomm Stadium this afternoon to play the San Diego Chargers.
Denver comes into the game at 7-1 and will undoubtedly be looking to gain some momentum with a win before the Week 11 Sunday Night Football clash with Kansas City. Unfortunately, Broncos’ coach John Fox had to have heart surgery less than a week ago and is out indefinitely. Defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, who has plenty of experience as a head coach himself, will be taking over the head coaching gig for Fox.
The Chargers enter this game at 4-4, after losing to Washington 30-24 in overtime last weekend.
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After this bye week, the Chiefs will play Denver twice in three weeks, sandwiched by a game against San Diego at Arrowhead. They’ll also have to travel to San Diego to play the Chargers in Week 17.
Could that be for 16-0? That remains to be seen. So for now, the Chiefs best course of action will be focusing on Denver next week.
That’s what makes this game so important.
Every bit of success San Diego has should be charted, graphed, analyzed and scouted. If and when they score a touchdown, how did they do it and how does that translate into what the Chiefs can do?
The same could be said of Denver though. What are they running that works, and how to the Chiefs counter that?
Anytime you scout a team its important to watch every game to see the entirety of their playbook and how they react to a multitude of situations, but there’s something special about divisional games and this is quite the opportunity for Reid and the Chiefs to completely focus on this game.
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Not only can they scout Denver against a divisional opponent, but they’ll also be able to start getting the report ready on the Chargers. It’s a two-for-one, and in the NFL, even a slight advantage like that can be a winning advantage.
It’s no secret that the post-bye part of the season isn’t going to be easy for Kansas City, and the Chiefs are going to really have to go out there and prove that their 9-0 start wasn’t a fluke.
Sure, it’s going to come down to execution on the field, but winning these divisional games will be just as much about preparation as well. The Chiefs have a golden opportunity to prepare this Sunday.
Give Reid, Bob Sutton, Dave Toub and crew a week and I bet they can find a way to slow down Peyton Manning and the Broncos. Give them two and perhaps, just perhaps, the Chiefs will find a way to beat them.
Note: We’ll be talking about the game on this live thread.