NFL Crystal Ball: Kansas City Chiefs will defeat the Denver Broncos

In week 8 of the NFL season I think the most interesting game will be the Denver Broncos vs the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs are my pick for the winner.

The Chiefs are doing really well this season. They are first in the AFC West with 5 wins and 2 losses. They are on a 2-game losing streak, but that is about to change. Although the Chiefs have been struggling when they are the away team, their offence has improved a lot this year. They average 392.4 yards per game and are 3rd in the league. They are 5th in the league in passing. Their average in rushing yards is 129.0 per game which puts them 5th in the league. All of the wide receivers on the Chiefs average 10 yards a game.

They are using their rookie running back Kareem Hunt a lot in their plays. His stats this year are great for a guy who got drafted in the 3rd round. He averages 5.8 yards every carry, has 4 touchdowns so far this season and leads the league most rushing yards. When the Chiefs give the ball to Kareem Hunt they are doing better and getting the win. Against the Steelers, Hunt only got the ball 9 times and they ended up losing 13 to 19.

Top players on the Chiefs offence are Travis Kelce, Alex Smith, and Tyreek Hill. Alex Smith is one of the top quarterbacks this year. He already has almost 2,000 passing yards whereas at the end of last year he only had 3,500 yards. Quarterback Alex Smith has really improved and he’s using his rookie wide receivers because he sees talent in them. They need to use their rookies more in the offence. Tyreek Hill is a wide receiver going into his second year with the team. He was a round 5 draft pick and overall 25th. Hill is a top receiver and has potential to be great. He averages a solid 14.3 passing yards per catch and that means a first down on every play he catches the ball. Travis Kelce is a veteran tight end who has been with Kansas City Chiefs for five seasons. Kelce hasn’t really blown up any season but he is still one of the best tight ends. He needs to improve on his catching game so they can get more involved in the offence. He is 6’5 and only averages 1,000 passing yards per season despite the fact that he towers over most of the defense that guards.

The defense for the Chiefs aren’t the best but they get the job done. They are 20th in the league for allowing points per game and 29th in allowing yards per game. The weakest part of the Chiefs on defense is stopping the passing. They are 28th in the league for passing yards per game. The Chiefs really haven’t found a way to stop the running offence of other teams they rank 25th in the league. They don’t have the greatest defence but they are winning the games. The Denver Broncos need to be good on the offensive side if they want to win because the Kansas offense is great.

The Denver Broncos have been doing pretty well. They are 2nd in the AFC West. I think the Broncos should be in 4th place because they have 3 wins and 3 losses but they are lucky that they are in a bad division. The Broncos are trying to come back after losing the best quarterback in their franchise’s history, Peyton Manning. He retired in 2015-16 after winning the Super Bowl. It was the best way to end his career and he deserved it. This meant someone needed to follow in his footsteps. Brock Osweiler had to step up his game for the 2016 season. Brock didn’t do as well as his team had hoped but he got almost 3000 passing yards. The downside of this was that he was intercepted 16 times and sacked 27 times. The Broncos in the 2016 season did not go to the playoffs.

The Broncos are looking for talent in their young quarterbacks so they gave Trevor Siemian a chance. This is his 3rd season in the NFL. He has 1,471 passing yards right now and the bad news is that he has been intercepted every game. These two quarterbacks are good but they need to make sure they get it to the wide receiver. They just need to slow it down.

The Kansas defense will easily figure out the Broncos offence when they play on Monday. The Broncos always have trouble with finding a good running back that can do something for them. This will prevent the quarterbacks from getting interceptions so much because they rely on their passing. The wide receivers on the Broncos are talented but they rely on two of their players, Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas. They both average 10 yards per catch but when they are not open you can’t rely on them. If Kansas just shuts down Thomas and Sanders they have a easy win.

The strongest part of the Broncos is their defense. Three key players Kansas City has to watch for are Von Miller, Aqib Talib, and Derek Wolfe. If these 3 players can shut down Kareem Hunt that would be big–just like what the Steelers did to Kareem Hunt. If Aqib Talib can stop their young wide receivers it would make a huge difference. Denver just needs to focus on stopping Kareem Hunt then they have no choice but to go to the passing game. Denver needs to shut down the Kansas City offence early in the first quarter.

I’m picking Kansas City to win over the Denver Broncos. But if the Denver defence is good and stops the Chiefs offense they will have a chance.

NFL Crystal Ball is a column in which Ferda42 picks the winners of upcoming NFL games. Got a question or comment for Ferda42? Hit us up in the comment section or by emailing 8fortymagazine@gmail.com.