The Kansas City Chiefs are once again the underdogs as most NFL experts are going with the Pittsburgh Steelers as the teams face off in Week 2.
The Kansas City Chiefs are coming off a victory against the Los Angeles Chargers in which both hopeful expectations and sinking-feeling suspicions were realized. The expectations for the offense to be perhaps the NFL’s most exciting were proven to be on the mark. Unfortunately, so were the suspicions that the defense would have the tendency to make their opponent’s offense look exciting as well. The latter is likely having more impact than the former on NFL analysts across the media in their picks for second week of the season.
The Chiefs will head into Pittsburgh to face a Steelers team that last week battled an improved Cleveland Browns’ squad to a tie. The Steelers offense looked pretty great on the ground without Le’Veon Bell, with rookie James Conner rushing for 135 yards and two touchdowns. Ben Roethlisberger, on the other hand, looked rough, throwing three interceptions. But if history continues to repeat itself, a home game against the Chiefs could be Roethlisberger’s bounce-back ticket.
Looking at analysts’ picks from across the media, there is a lot of faith in just that.
Over at ESPN, 40% of the pie experts are picking the Chiefs, with Matt Bowen, Mike Golic, Molly Qerim, and Louis Riddick all favoring KC. Bowen and Riddick both picked the Chiefs last week as well.
Jared Dubin and John Breech are the only two of CBS’ panel of eight to pick the Chiefs. Neither picked the Chiefs last week.
In replace of Sports Illustrated, I’m going to start reserving the third spot in this weekly breakdown for Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight, one of my favorite sources of data-based prognostication. This week, FiveThirtyEight favors the Steelers, though not by a whole lot; they sit at a 58% win probability.
Considering the Steelers consistent dominance of the Chiefs, it should come as no surprise that they’re mostly favored to win this weekend, even coming off an ugly tie against the Browns. Even when the Chiefs have been at their absolute best, the Steelers have proven to be a bad matchup for K.C.
Now, of course, your response to this is likely, “That was pre-Patrick Mahomes!”. Patrick Mahomes doesn’t play defense.
After one week, Mahomes has more-or-less sold the NFL world on the idea that he’s the Next Big Thing, but it’s the defense that has them still picking the Steelers to win on Sunday. If the Chiefs win in a shootout, the questions surrounding the defense won’t fade. If they manage to win decisively behind not only another strong offensive display but also a solid defensive outing then you might start seeing the rest of the football world start to believe something special is brewing in K.C.
Be the first to comment