NFL picks and predictions: Experts pick Chiefs to roll over Titans
By Matt Conner
NFL experts have weighed in on Week 9 with their predictions and the Chiefs are a popular pick to roll over the Titans at home.
Two teams playing on Sunday during the NFL’s Week 9 slate have identical records—winning ones at that—at 5-2 overall, but very few are viewing the Tennessee Titans and Kansas City Chiefs as equals these days. The early line for this week had oddsmakers giving the Chiefs a 12.5 point advantage, and the trend is continuing with the fact that seemingly every expert is picking Kansas City to roll to 6-2.
The Titans are the class of the AFC South once again but that’s hardly a tall order. The Jags show promise but they’re also a few pieces from contention. The Indianapolis Colts are one of the year’s biggest letdowns, while the Houston Texans play with spunk but remain the bottom-dweller everyone thought they would be.
As for the Chiefs, they came through an early gauntlet of a schedule with five wins in seven games and one loss was a total comedy of errors against Indy. Besides the Buffalo Bills, the Chiefs are the only elite team in the AFC and they’re adding healthy players after the bye, including the first game played by first-round pick Trent McDuffie since Week 1.
Over at USA Today, all six experts on their panel have the Chiefs winning on Sunday Night Football against the visiting Titans in a rare line where all parties agree. The same thing can be said of all seven experts who submitted picks for ESPN this week, each of whom have K.C. winning in primetime.
As for individual submissions, Pete Prisco over at CBS Sports has the Chiefs winning by 10 but says Derrick Henry will keep things close for most of the game. Bill Bender of The Sporting News predicts similar results—a nine-point win for the Chiefs—but believes it could be closer. While the advice of most is to take Tennessee against such a large spread, FanSided’s own Matt Verderame thinks the Chiefs will win by 13—even more than the 12.5 points given by oddsmakers.
The Titans and Chiefs kick off at 7:20 p.m. C.T. on Sunday, November 6.