It seems crazy to call an opening day game a “must win” but it has been a while since the Chiefs faced a match with as much on the line as they do against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
The home opener is probably the only game out of the Chiefs’ first five in which they are generally favored. After this, the team goes on the road to Denver and then Miami, then plays the Patriots at home before a road trip to San Francisco.
In other words, if the team drops this one and comes out looking flat, then they could be conceivably go into the Week 6 bye at 0-5.
In case you weren’t terrified enough about the outcome of this game, consider that the team’s #1 receiver and starting RT are suspended and several key players on both sides of the ball are banged up, including their starting ILB, CB2 and S.
I personally think that regardless of how the Chiefs perform in this gauntlet at the outset of the schedule, they have a good chance to go on a big run coming out of the bye once their cobbled together O-line begins to gel and the competition becomes less fierce.
Still, to get to there, they gotta go through the Titans first and these three players hold the balance of this game in their hands.