Redskins Bold Predictions Week Four vs. Chiefs: What to Expect
With the NFL’s season hitting the quarter mark this week, (can you believe it?) fans of most teams in the league are left wondering which version of their team is going to show up this week. Every season there seems to be some sort of consensus of one or a few teams set to dominate. This hasn’t been the case after three weeks of the season.
Everyone who has watched the NFL over the past decade plus knows better than to doubt the Patriots as long as Tom Brady and Bill “sweatshirt” Belichick are around. Their offseason was coined to be incredible, garnering rave reviews from the football world. Some calling this team better than the 18-1 2007 team, causing many predictions of perfection this upcoming season. One week in, the notion of perfection was put to rest. For maybe the first time during the duo’s tenure, the Patriots look as vulnerable as ever thanks to a defense that is dead last (32nd) in the NFL in points allowed at an average clip of 31.0 average points per game. This, along with the Falcons and Chiefs being the final two remaining undefeated teams while not looking particularly dominate, this NFL season is shaping up to be one of the most unpredictable in recent memory.
Lucky for the Redskins, they have an opportunity to make this season even more weird by handing one of those undefeated teams their first loss.
This week the Redskins will take on the Chiefs in a much anticipated on Monday night showdown at 8:30 broadcasted on ESPN. When taking a quick look at the chiefs record, it is easy to be intimidated by their undefeated start. Starting off the season by destroying the before mentioned Patriots should not be something we should dig into too deeply.
This matchup has my brain flowing with bold predictions, and has upset written all over it. Since I’m not writing a book here, I’ll stick to the two that have the most realistic chance of happening.
1: NFL rushing leader, Kareem Hunt is held in check, loses his 50+ yard touchdown streak
I know what you’re thinking, Hunt has been dominate through three weeks. He has taken the NFL by storm ever since he earned the starting running back job at the expense of an injury to starting tail back Spencer Ware (remember him?). Leading the entire NFL in rushing through three weeks, even when teams think they have him contained, he makes a huge play usually resulting in a touchdown. Ripping off a 50+ yard play in each of his first four career games, which is an NFL record, there seems to be no solution to containing the rookie.
I’m here to tell you with confidence that streak ends this week.
Facing only one rushing defense ranked in the top 10 so far this season, Hunt will be facing the number two ranked Redskins run defense that has allowed a mere 62.3 yards per game so far (insert jaw drop). Gashing the #7 ranked run defense in the Eagles for 109 total yards in a game where it seemed Hunt was contained for much of the game
KC has only trailed during a game once so far this season (down 6 points week one). This allowed them to stick to their game plan of running the ball, and limiting what throws Alex Smith has to make each week so far. Aside from his unexpected gem of a performance week one against the Patriots, we watched not only the Chiefs domination, but a version of Alex Smith showed up us football fans have not seen often, if not ever before.
I firmly believe that this week will be the week we will be back to seeing good ol’ Alex “Capitan dink and dunk” Smith we know and love. Thanks to the complete shutting down of the Chiefs run game he will be forced out of his comfort-zone to make throws he is not accustomed to.
2. The overrated Chiefs Defense gets torched thanks to an offensive day by the ‘Skins that is familiar to fans.
Chiefs defense overrated?
Don’t let the assumption of defensive dominance fool you.
Year in and year out, we hear the same old song about the Chiefs. Conservative offense that is carried by a dominant defense. The stats so far this during this young season suggest to me other wise. The Chiefs rank in the bottom half of the league in rushing and passing defense ranked 18th and 23rd respectively. They trail the 20 year running laughing stock of the NFL, Cleveland Browns(who are starting upwards…I guess). The only thing that comes to mind with the Browns name is the iconic jersey featuring the 28 starting QB’s since the team drafted Tim Couch in 1999.
Injuries to defensive stars Tamba Hali and Eric Berry no doubt has hurt the teams defense thus far in 2017 However, you’ll have trouble convincing me that two players out of the 46 players that dress on Sunday are the sole reason for a usually dominant defense’s surprising falling off. If you asked the Chiefs players if those two are the cause to a declining defense, they’ll tell you no. They’ll say what just about every team says about injuries effecting the unit as a whole, “next man up”.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that the Browns are better than the Chiefs in anyway. Us as humans are creatures of habit. Once something becomes normal to us, it usually stays a norm. The thing we have come accustom to, during the Andy Reid era, is the team having a dominate defense that can win them games. Keeping the ball out of Alex Smith’s hands.
In week 3 vs. the Raiders, Kirk Cousins had the game everyone was waiting for. Exploding for 365 yards passing and three touchdowns, he, along with pass-catching specialist Chris Thompson (188 all-purpose yards, 1TD) enjoyed torching the popular Superbowl pick, Oakland Raiders
With the Redskins defense sniffing dominance in this young NFL season, and the offense starting find its stride, I believe there will be one less undefeated team come week 5
Score Prediction: Redskins 24, Chiefs 14
All stats are provided by ESPN unless stated otherwise.
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