Chiefs rant: Onto the Green Bay Packers

Jan 18, 2015; Seattle, WA, USA; Green Bay Packers wide receiver Randall Cobb (18) celebrates his first quarter touchdown catch with Jody Nelson against the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

The outcome of the Broncos game was bad, actually horrible. That said, there were some bright spots and reasons to be optimistic heading into our next matchup with Green Bay.

Let me start with the defense and the sensational play of Marcus Peters who’s only two regular season games old. Where I could have been extremely worried about the thought of a rookie cornerback heading into Green Bay, I’m not. Pro Football Focus has Peters graded at a +2.3 which 11th-best in the league among cornerbacks. Sure, Rodgers will complete some passes on him because he’s an elite quarterback but I don’t think the game will ever be too big for this kid as he displays some serious confidence.

The run defense seemed majorly improved against Denver limiting them to just 61 yards rushing and the fact that Lacy might be out against Kansas City gives me even more optimism about defending the run attack of Green Bay.

This last Sunday Night Football matchup between the Seahawks and Packers gave Chiefs fans an indicator on how they will match up against the Packers. Kansas City and Seattle have similarly built rosters that rely heavily on their strong defenses and are led on offense by their star running backs. Like the Chiefs, the Seahawks also have struggled a bit with the offensive line and the Packers were able to exploit that in this recent match-up. Marshawn Lynch finished the game with 41 yards rushing which forced Seattle into a lot of third and long situations allowing the pass rush to get after Russell Wilson.

One of the reasons the Packers had so much success against the Seahawks on defense was the play of defensive tackle B.J. Raji who seems to be back to his normal form after some recent injuries. PFF has Raji graded at a +5.0 which has him ranked sixth among defensive tackles/nose tackles in the league.

This will be Mitch Morse’s biggest challenge yet going into a hostile environment against a player who’s playing at a high level. Morse’s performance will be critical for Kansas City to have success offensively in this match-up. So far Morse has done great in his first two starts, PFF has him graded at a +1.2 which is seventh best in the league. For the first two games of the season it looks like the Chiefs made a brilliant move dropping Hudson who not been graded well by PFF with a -1.7 which is ranked 18th in the league.

It’s always exciting playing against Green Bay, I think Kansas City can win this but it will take at least four touchdowns. The Packers have scored 58 points in their first two games combined which averages out to 29 points a game. The Chiefs defense can lower that down a little bit but the offense is going to have to do its part so the defense isn’t on the field too much.

There’s been some great games in the past between the Chiefs and Packers. In their most recent match-up in 2011 Kansas City prevented Green Bay from going undefeated beating them 19-14 in Arrowhead.  The last time the Chiefs played in Green Bay was in 2003 and was one of the more exciting games in Chiefs history beating the Packers 40-34 in overtime. I wouldn’t mind seeing a repeat of that this next Monday, I would say that would remedy the Broncos loss completely.

That’s what’s on my mind, Addicts. What’s on yours?