Denver (1-0) at Kansas City (1-0)
When: Thursday, September 17th 2015
Where: Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO
Time: 8:30 ET
TV: CBS Radio: XM 226, 225, 88
The Denver Broncos open their road schedule tonight with a tough task against AFC West rival Kansas City. Denver has dominated the Chiefs in recent years winning six in a row since Peyton Manning became the Denver quarterback. In fact, in those 6 games, Manning has 16 touchdowns and only 3 interceptions. Last week Manning and the offense struggled against Baltimore failing to score an offensive touchdown. Brandon McManus kicked 4 field goals including a 56 and 57 yarder. Their lone TD came on a 51 yard interception return by Aqib Talib. Manning was 24-for-40 for 175 yards and an interception. The running game wasn’t much better averaging only 2.8 yards a carry. After just one week, the offense ranks 31st and the defense ranks 1st in total yards. The defense looked great and held the Ravens to 2-of-13 on 3rd down conversions. The offense will need to be much better if they want to win tonight.
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The Chiefs had an easy time in Houston winning 27-20 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. The Chiefs shot out to a 27-9 lead before letting Houston score 11 points late. Alex Smith was terrific against a strong Houston defense completing 22-of-33 passes for 243 yards and 3 touchdowns. He hooked up with TE Travis Kelce for 2 of those scores. Kelce had 106 yards receiving on 6 catches. Defensively the Chiefs will need to improve over last week. They allowed 396 total yards including 298 through the air. As we mentioned above, the Chiefs have lost 6 straight to Denver and have failed to cover the spread in 4 of those. Running back Jamal Charles hasn’t ran for over 100 yards against Denver since 2012. I expect the Chiefs to do what they did last week and come out throwing. That’s Any Reid’s style.
This game is a tough one to predict, which is why we’re leaving it off our SuperContest picks. Anytime you can get a Peyton Manning team getting 3 points, you have to take it. This should be a back-and-forth game with a FG deciding things late.
Pick: Broncos+3
