The Kansas City Chiefs play their fourth game on Sunday against the Detroit Lions. What should fans know going into the contest?
The Kansas City Chiefs are coming off another spectacular performance against the Baltimore Ravens. Truthfully, the game was over in the third quarter when the Chiefs went up a dominant 17 points at a score of 30-13. As Andy Reid has done so many times in the past, he packed up his playbook and reigned in the offense after that point.
It ended much closer than that, due to some poor calls and incredibly lucky plays. The moral of Sunday’s story, regardless of what national pundits took away, was that the Chiefs completely dominated a great team that had the tools to beat them. Baltimore has a great run game, which helps keep the reigning MVP and best player in the league on the sideline. They have a mobile quarterback, which creates problems for any defense but especially one that is still finding itself. They have a great defense at most levels which, if nothing else, should be able to slow down the Chiefs offense enough to make things interesting.
You could say they accomplished that, but they really didn’t. A team that still has not achieved its full potential this season, a fact defensive coordinators are likely starting to realize leaving them in a panic, took care of business at every point and beat a team quarterbacked by the latest and greatest media darling.
On Sunday, the Chiefs travel to Detroit to face the somewhat resurgent Detroit Lions and there are plenty of intriguing story lines to know.
Matthew Stafford has been quietly having an impressive season
Matthew Stafford has been around for a long time at this point. After 11 seasons with the Detroit Lions, he has a combined record of 68-75-1. At first glance, that might seem pretty mediocre. If not even a little poor. However, there’s more to this story.
Stafford has rarely had a great supporting cast. For instance, he was drafted the year following the infamous 0-16 season. Since then, the Lions have had a few great players here and there but never had a squad that made you seriously think they were competing for a Super Bowl.
In spite of this fact, he’s been fairly successful statistically. Over his career he’s played in a total of 144 games including the three so far this year. That just so happens to be 9 full seasons. On average over each 16 game span he has completed 62 percent of his passes for nearly 4400 yards, 27 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. When you consider he’s also been sacked an average of 37 times over that same stretch, you should see my point.
Stafford is a good quarterback who’s rarely had a great situation. He’s not Patrick Mahomes, by any stretch of the imagination, but he has been above average for the majority of his career. The highlight of his career was in 2011 when he broke 5,000 yards passing and 40 passing touchdowns. That’s an incredible achievement either way you look at it.
The point here is, Stafford is quietly having himself a strong year at quarterback. After three games, in which the Lions have beaten two nationally revered teams in the San Diego Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles the Lions are 2-0-1. Stafford is completing 63 percent of his passes for 831 yards, six touchdowns, and two interceptions. If he keeps this pace he’ll throw for over 4,400 yards, 32 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions.
Now, at this point Chiefs fans would scoff at these numbers. Yet, it wasn’t so long ago that we would have killed to have a quarterback with this kind of season. The Chiefs secondary will have its hands full on Sunday against a rejuvenated Stafford.