A tough start will give us all a chance, right off the bat, to see how good this team really is. If they are going to be the Super Bowl caliber team we all want them to be, then they have to have the ability to run a 10-game gauntlet and come out of the other side standing on their own two feet.
The other silver lining of having such a difficult path through the first 1games is that the last six are a lot more manageable. That trip to Baltimore will be a challenge, but the rest is much less fearsome, and mostly played at home.
Though their first 10 contests contain consecutive road games twice (Green Bay and Cincinnati in weeks 3 & 4; Denver and San Diego in weeks 10 & 11), four out of Kansas City’s last six will be at Arrowhead. Including the only two-game home stand on the schedule to end the season.
The first ten games may look like a curse, but if Kansas City can make it through that stretch with a record competitive enough to keep it in the playoff picture, it is set up to end the year on a hot streak. And carrying momentum into the postseason is always a good thing.
It is hard to say what a team will actually look like in the last few weeks of the season when training camp hasn’t even started. But the Chiefs should end the year favored against Buffalo, Oakland, and Cleveland. And the games against Baltimore and San Diego should both be winnable.
While I am still wondering if the NFL schedule makers were based out of Denver or California, they left a small light at the end of the tunnel for the Chiefs. If Kansas City can make it to the end of that tunnel, then that cursed schedule may start to look like a blessing.
GO CHIEFS!!!