NFL picks and predictions: Chiefs favored to win AFC West
By Jacob Harris
The last round of picks and predictions from NFL experts are in for the regular season, and the Chiefs are clear favorites at home.
Okay, now do the Kansas City Chiefs have it out of their system? Have they got all of their inexplicable losing out of the way for the season?
It’s every year with this team. At least this time the losses won’t matter as long as they beat the Oakland Raiders in Arrowhead Stadium. Which they will certainly do. Most likely. Probably.
If the Chiefs’ goal this season was to be seen as a high powered offense but also a playoff fraud, they’ve done a really, really good job of it. Anything short of a complete dismantling of the Raiders Sunday will do nothing to convince anyone outside of K.C. that this team is primed for a deep playoff run. Which is an especially sad accomplishment given they’ll be the 1 seed coming off a victory this week. Only the Chiefs can make the prospect of winning two playoff games in a row at home seem like an impossible feat.
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There’s never been a disparity between an offense and a defense as massive as the 2018 Chiefs. The gap in talent between the two is so wide they may as well be Mercury and Pluto (obviously, the defense is Pluto, since Pluto isn’t even a real planet). They’re like college roommates where only one of them cleans up, so the one or two times the other one is left alone results in stacks of dirty dishes to the ceiling and a festering mystery stench. It’s entirely embarrassing.
But as embarrassing as the Chiefs’ defense is, it is not nearly embarrassing as the Raiders’ everything. Despite the Chiefs’ being a joke on one side of the ball, the Raiders are a joke on all sides of all things, so it should come as no surprise that K.C. is heavily favored this week.
All Chiefs.
All Chiefs. Except for, naturally, Jason La Canfora, who seems dead set on having the absolute worst record picking games this season.
FiveThirtyEight gives the Chiefs an 88% win probability. On the season, K.C. still sits at 2nd in likelihood to win the Super Bowl at 16%, behind the New Orleans Saints at 32%
The Chiefs absolutely must win this game. Not just because it’s the difference between the 1 and 5 seeds. Not just because they’re coming off back-to-back primetime losses. They absolutely must win this game to preserve the sanity of an entire fanbase. A loss to the Raiders on Sunday would feel like the end of the season. 11-5 would feel like 5-11.