The Kansas City Chiefs will host the Arizona Cardinals at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday. It's Week 11 in the NFL and the Chiefs stand tied with the Oakland Raiders (who have the tiebreaker) at the top of the AFC West with a 5-4 record. The Chiefs have lost two in a row but if stats mean anything then KC has plenty of advantages.
Offense. The Chiefs are the 12th ranked offense coming into the game. Their running game is very good...except for the last two weeks where they've really struggled. The passing game has had its problems this season but Matt Cassel has been a good complement to the running game at times. The Chiefs are No. 1 in rushing attempts and rushing yards and have thrown the last amount of interceptions in the NFL. That tells you how KC wants to play the game. The Cardinals defense is 27th against the pass and 28th against the run. The stats say KC should move the ball well against the Cardinals. Of course, the stats also said the Chiefs should have ran the ball all over the Broncos and we know what happened.
Defense. The Chiefs enter the game as the 15th ranked defense in the NFL. They have been playing well over the course of the season, except for last week's debacle in Denver. The Chiefs have trouble with the pass at times but can generally shut down the run (again, Denver last week is an exception). The Cardinals are the 30th ranked passing offense and 29th ranked rushing offense. Derek Anderson completes 53 percent of his passes and throws more picks (8) than touchdowns (6).
Last week the stats were in favor of KC as well but Denver came out and pretty much dominated. That should tell you that stats don't always matter. But we knew going into last week's game that Denver had a potent offense. The Chiefs just couldn't shut it down. The Cardinals have lost four in a row and their quarterback situation is nowhere near Denver's. They've got big problems there and the Chiefs coaching staff can usually exploit a weakness.
The Chiefs have been in a funk recently so all bets are off if that continues. Statistically, this is a KC victory. Vegas is putting seven points on the game in favor of the Chiefs so they're thinking KC can get it done.
Kansas City is 4-0 at home this year so it's going to be hard to predict an upset particularly if they get a good crowd at the game that will make it difficult on the Cardinals offense.