Five Reasons The Kansas City Chiefs Will Win On Monday Night

Oct 13, 2013; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs outside linebacker Tamba Hali (left) celebrates with outside linebacker Justin Houston (50) after a sack against the Oakland Raiders in the second half at Arrowhead Stadium. Kansas City won the game 24-7. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

2. The Chiefs Pass Rush Should Have A Field Day

The Chiefs entered the week tied for third in the NFL in sacks with nine. The Patriots entered the week with Pro Football Focus‘ worst combined pass blocking grade at -21.7. Their starting left tackle Nate Solder is the second worst rated pass blocking tackle with a pass blocking grade of -6.9 (and no, Eric Fisher isn’t the one player rated lower, his pass blocking grade is a -4.0). That’s not good for New England when KC has the second highest team pass rushing grade in the NFL.

The Chiefs defense is reliant on its pass rush in order to be successful. When a team (like the Chiefs) doesn’t have the greatest coverage players in the secondary they need to force the opposing QB to rush their throws and disrupt their timing. If a QB has plenty of time to sit back and find a receiver, chances are someone will come open. So while the seven sacks allowed by New England may not be a lot, the ten additional QB hits, and 30 QB hurries that they’ve allowed are significant. I would argue that none of the Patriots first three opponents (Miami, Minnesota, and Oakland) have as good of pass rush as KC does. The only one that is close is Miami and they are the ones that defeated the Patriots 33-20 in Miami in week one. In that game the Patriots allowed four of their seven sacks, six of their ten QB hits, and 16 of their 30 QB hurries.

Miami does have a good pass rush (as we saw last week), but they really only have one elite edge rusher in Cameron Wake, where as KC has two in Tamba Hali and Justin Houston. I also think it goes without saying that the atmosphere will be slightly more hostile in KC than it was in Miami (more on that in a minute) and should make things even more difficult for the offensive line to communicate and pick up blitzes.