Denver Broncos at Kansas City Chiefs
Sunday, 4 December, 1615 EST / 2115 GMT
Arrowhead Stadium
TV: CBS (US) / Sky Sports Xtra (UK)
Why it matters
It is quite possible that one of the top 10 teams in the NFL won't have a shot at reaching the Super Bowl, because it won't make the playoffs. While the National Football Conference wallows in mediocrity, with only a handful of teams worthy of playing in the post-season, the AFC is white hot with competition. Nowhere is it more intense than the AFC West, where Denver, Kansas City and San Diego are fighting it out for two places at most. Division winners progress as of right but there are only two wildcard spots for the entire conference and both Pittsburgh and Jacksonville are also in the running for those.
Denver has a wobble last week, needing overtime to win on Thanksgiving Day in Dallas, but are two games clear atop the division. They will be aware the playoff place is not in the bag yet but this match, and the New Year's Eve trip to San Diego, are the only real obstacles to a strong finish.
Kansas City have a brutal run-in with visits to Dallas and the Giants and must either beat both Denver this Sunday and the Chargers (with whom they currently share a 7-4 record) in three weeks' time, or let other teams decide whether or not the Chiefs are playing in the second week of January.
Team talking points
These sides have met once already this season, and it wasn't pretty. Kansas City scored a touchdown with two minutes remaining to save some semblance of pride but they still went down 30-10 at the tongue-twistingly-named Invesco Field at Mile High. What has changed since? The Chiefs' defense has continued to improve, from the miserable outfit of two years ago to a side ranked fifth in the league against the run. They also love to send extra defenders to blitz opposing quarterbacks, making a mess of the defending champion New England Patriots last weekend.
The biggest change for the Chiefs is the loss of star running back Priest Holmes for the season, with potentially career-ending head and neck problems, and the seamless transition to Larry Johnson. Holmes had been under par all season, and was easily held by the Broncos last time, but Johnson has run for 462 yards in three games since Holmes went on the injured reserve list. That includes a Chiefs record 211 against Houston a fortnight ago. Johnson has benefited from the return of tackle Willie Roaf (all 320lb of him) from hamstring trouble.
Denver, if anything, have got better since that first meeting, but quarterback Jake Plummer proved on Thanksgiving that his new-look, high-percentage persona can be rattled by a defense that pressures mercilessly. Hard-hitting runner Tatum Bell is still struggling with a chest injury, although he has always shared time with Mike Anderson and back-up Ron Dayne also deputised well against the Cowboys, as most rushers do behind Denver's under-sized, mobile offensive line.
Star players
Tony Gonzalez #88, TE, Kansas City
The most thrown-to tight end in the league so far this season must have been licking his lips after watching Denver's game in Dallas, after his Cowboys counterpart Jason Witten caught nine passes against a Broncos defense paying plenty of attention to the run. The same is likely to be true this week for Gonzalez, one of a new generation of tight ends who matches size (250lb) with speed and tends to be QB Trent Green's primary target even when the pressure isn't on.
Champ Bailey, #24, CB, Denver
Denver regarded Bailey so highly they traded away star running back Clinton Portis to the Redskins to get hold of him. Until week four of this season, Bailey was the only cornerback to have started every regular season game for his team since arriving in the NFL but the streak ended at 99 when he began to experience hamstring trouble. Since then he has blown hot and cold but last week he snatched a pass from Cowboys QB Drew Bledsoe and returned it 65 yards for a score. Bailey is regarded as a "cover corner", who prevents his receiver from getting open rather than muscling opponents off the ball, but with one side of the field shut off, Kansas City's passing game will have to work extra hard.
What to look for
Running backs will slug it out with defenders for much of the day, and neither is likely to come out on top. It is in the passing game that both of these defenses are suspect and it is up to Trent Green and Jake Plummer to spot those weaknesses and take advantage. Expect the occasional deep pass to open up this rushing-dominated game, with the team that gets away with it most the winner.
Denver kicker Jason Elam, who won last week's match with a chip shot in overtime, was listed on early injury reports as having a troublesome calf. If he can't kick at all, the Broncos are likely to bring someone else in, but this may just reduce the range of a kicker who shares the record for the longest successful attempt ever, a massive 63 yards.
Tip
Denver have consistency and confidence on their side, so they should prevail, if battered and bruised, 21-17.
(Season so far 4-2)
Interesting trivia
Kansas City can lay claim to the strongest British connections in the NFL, in kicker Lawrence Tynes and assistant head coach Al Saunders.
Tynes was born in Greenock, west of Glasgow, and his maternal grandmother still lives there, although he and his parents moved to Florida when his father's US Navy posting ended. Educated at Troy State University in Alabama, Tynes spent 2002 with the Scottish Claymores of NFL Europe then had two seasons in the Canadian Football League with the Ottawa Renegades before beating out NFL legend Morten Andersen for the job of Chief kicker in 2004.
London-born Saunders emigrated with his family and naturalised as a US citizen at the age of 13 in 1960. He became one of only four foreign-born head coaches in NFL history when he took the helm of the San Diego Chargers in 1986, was the offensive co-ordinator of the Super Bowl-winning St Louis Rams' "greatest show on turf" in 2000 and is now in his second spell in Kansas City.
In other trivial matters, Kansas City, which is confusingly just over the state line in Missouri, is said to have more fountains than any city except Rome and more boulevards than any city except Paris. And you thought this was just football, football, football.
NFLBriefing.com
Get your Christmas sports gifts at Football Fanatics
Arrowhead Stadium
TV: CBS (US) / Sky Sports Xtra (UK)
Why it matters
It is quite possible that one of the top 10 teams in the NFL won't have a shot at reaching the Super Bowl, because it won't make the playoffs. While the National Football Conference wallows in mediocrity, with only a handful of teams worthy of playing in the post-season, the AFC is white hot with competition. Nowhere is it more intense than the AFC West, where Denver, Kansas City and San Diego are fighting it out for two places at most. Division winners progress as of right but there are only two wildcard spots for the entire conference and both Pittsburgh and Jacksonville are also in the running for those.
Denver has a wobble last week, needing overtime to win on Thanksgiving Day in Dallas, but are two games clear atop the division. They will be aware the playoff place is not in the bag yet but this match, and the New Year's Eve trip to San Diego, are the only real obstacles to a strong finish.
Kansas City have a brutal run-in with visits to Dallas and the Giants and must either beat both Denver this Sunday and the Chargers (with whom they currently share a 7-4 record) in three weeks' time, or let other teams decide whether or not the Chiefs are playing in the second week of January.
Team talking points
These sides have met once already this season, and it wasn't pretty. Kansas City scored a touchdown with two minutes remaining to save some semblance of pride but they still went down 30-10 at the tongue-twistingly-named Invesco Field at Mile High. What has changed since? The Chiefs' defense has continued to improve, from the miserable outfit of two years ago to a side ranked fifth in the league against the run. They also love to send extra defenders to blitz opposing quarterbacks, making a mess of the defending champion New England Patriots last weekend.
The biggest change for the Chiefs is the loss of star running back Priest Holmes for the season, with potentially career-ending head and neck problems, and the seamless transition to Larry Johnson. Holmes had been under par all season, and was easily held by the Broncos last time, but Johnson has run for 462 yards in three games since Holmes went on the injured reserve list. That includes a Chiefs record 211 against Houston a fortnight ago. Johnson has benefited from the return of tackle Willie Roaf (all 320lb of him) from hamstring trouble.
Denver, if anything, have got better since that first meeting, but quarterback Jake Plummer proved on Thanksgiving that his new-look, high-percentage persona can be rattled by a defense that pressures mercilessly. Hard-hitting runner Tatum Bell is still struggling with a chest injury, although he has always shared time with Mike Anderson and back-up Ron Dayne also deputised well against the Cowboys, as most rushers do behind Denver's under-sized, mobile offensive line.
Star players
Tony Gonzalez #88, TE, Kansas City
The most thrown-to tight end in the league so far this season must have been licking his lips after watching Denver's game in Dallas, after his Cowboys counterpart Jason Witten caught nine passes against a Broncos defense paying plenty of attention to the run. The same is likely to be true this week for Gonzalez, one of a new generation of tight ends who matches size (250lb) with speed and tends to be QB Trent Green's primary target even when the pressure isn't on.
Champ Bailey, #24, CB, Denver
Denver regarded Bailey so highly they traded away star running back Clinton Portis to the Redskins to get hold of him. Until week four of this season, Bailey was the only cornerback to have started every regular season game for his team since arriving in the NFL but the streak ended at 99 when he began to experience hamstring trouble. Since then he has blown hot and cold but last week he snatched a pass from Cowboys QB Drew Bledsoe and returned it 65 yards for a score. Bailey is regarded as a "cover corner", who prevents his receiver from getting open rather than muscling opponents off the ball, but with one side of the field shut off, Kansas City's passing game will have to work extra hard.
What to look for
Running backs will slug it out with defenders for much of the day, and neither is likely to come out on top. It is in the passing game that both of these defenses are suspect and it is up to Trent Green and Jake Plummer to spot those weaknesses and take advantage. Expect the occasional deep pass to open up this rushing-dominated game, with the team that gets away with it most the winner.
Denver kicker Jason Elam, who won last week's match with a chip shot in overtime, was listed on early injury reports as having a troublesome calf. If he can't kick at all, the Broncos are likely to bring someone else in, but this may just reduce the range of a kicker who shares the record for the longest successful attempt ever, a massive 63 yards.
Tip
Denver have consistency and confidence on their side, so they should prevail, if battered and bruised, 21-17.
(Season so far 4-2)
Interesting trivia
Kansas City can lay claim to the strongest British connections in the NFL, in kicker Lawrence Tynes and assistant head coach Al Saunders.
Tynes was born in Greenock, west of Glasgow, and his maternal grandmother still lives there, although he and his parents moved to Florida when his father's US Navy posting ended. Educated at Troy State University in Alabama, Tynes spent 2002 with the Scottish Claymores of NFL Europe then had two seasons in the Canadian Football League with the Ottawa Renegades before beating out NFL legend Morten Andersen for the job of Chief kicker in 2004.
London-born Saunders emigrated with his family and naturalised as a US citizen at the age of 13 in 1960. He became one of only four foreign-born head coaches in NFL history when he took the helm of the San Diego Chargers in 1986, was the offensive co-ordinator of the Super Bowl-winning St Louis Rams' "greatest show on turf" in 2000 and is now in his second spell in Kansas City.
In other trivial matters, Kansas City, which is confusingly just over the state line in Missouri, is said to have more fountains than any city except Rome and more boulevards than any city except Paris. And you thought this was just football, football, football.
NFLBriefing.com
Get your Christmas sports gifts at Football Fanatics
posted by MG at
5:45 PM
1 Comments:
Kansas City 31-27 Denver
Kansas City extended their unbeaten streak at home in December to 17 games, with part of the reason the 15F wind chill, part a deafening crowd, part Larry Johnson's 140 rushing yards - almost twice Denver's average conceded before this game - and part the presence of the hulking #77 Willie Roaf.
With Roaf at left tackle, Johnson had some massive holes to run through, and QB Trent Green had plenty of time to pass when needed.
As predicted, there were plenty of passing yards available early as defenses were exposed "cheating" up to stop the run. Once things settled down, it became a matter of who could run and who could stop the run. Including a vital fourth down stop of Mike Anderson with 2'01" remaining, KC's defense finished the argument.
They also managed to force Denver QB Jake Plummer into forcing passes, with two interceptions to show for it. Put pressure on Plummer and cover his obvious targets and the picks will come.
The playoffs are still a long way off for the Chiefs, though, as they face four post-season contenders to end the season in Dallas, the Giants, San Diego and Cincinnati. The visit of the Chargers could be the crucial one.
By
MG, at 11:20 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home