What has stayed the same?
Well to start, the Chiefs and Bengals are again at the top of the standings in their respective divisions and in a position to make deep runs into the playoffs yet again. The Chiefs come in at 9-2 with the AFC West all but wrapped up and the Bengals are 7-4 after a blundering 0-2 start. Much like last year, but somehow exceeding last year’s standard, the Chiefs have gotten through an absolutely brutal early season slate to find themselves in the pole position for the AFC’s top seed come playoff time. The Bengals have won a couple of good games (Titans last week and Jets week 3), but are largely surviving on wins over opponents that, let’s just say, will be drafting high.
Does that matter, though? We know these Bengals are game, and we know they are among the best in the league at making second-half adjustments. Just ask the Chiefs. Last year KC had the Bengals outscored 49-20 in the first half of their two matchups. The Chiefs subsequently scored 6 total points in 5 frames (2 third quarters, 2 fourth quarters, and overtime in the AFC title game) to follow and did not make any lemonade with those lemons. While the second matchup did make for some good online fiction a couple of weeks later, it didn’t do much to inspire hope in the Chiefs’ offensive scheme against a Bengals defensive staff that seemed to be smelling what KC was cooking.
The Bengals once again are locking opponents up in the second half, but the Chiefs seem to have learned from their past mistakes – the shower thoughts are paying off. Cincinnati has had the league’s best second-half defense in 2022 allowing only 6.8 points per half thus far. Who has the best second-half offense? The Denver Broncos. Sorry, theirs is actually the worst. It’s the Kansas City Chiefs averaging 14.7 points per half in crunch time this year that actually leads the league.
The coaching staffs are the same, including the same lovable quirks for each head coach. Count on Andy Reid to call one of his trusty “no reason” first-half timeouts while Zack Taylor will surely forget about one of his in the second half. A lot of these things are shaping up to give us another instant classic. Which we all know. There is no lack of clarity there. The one thing I’ve been trying to identify this week has been what the difference will need to be in pushing the Chiefs over the top against the Bengals.