Pro Football Weekly has noted the upcoming Monday Night Football game between the San Diego Chargers at 4-2 and the Kansas City Chiefs at 3-3 as one of their highlight games of week 8 and rightfully so. After all, the AFC West lead is at stake and the Chiefs are a feel good story having won their last three to right the ship to .500 after a historically poor start to the season.
The game preview at PFW points back to their first meeting as the turning point for both teams and their current scenarios. They write:
The suddenly viable 3-3 Chiefs and their opportunistic defense take on the suddenly shaky 4-2 Chargers, who blew an 11-point lead at MetLife Stadium and took some guff from some Jets in the aftermath. What's interesting to note is that these teams' current paths started right after they met the first time this season, in Week Three, after Eric Weddle picked off Matt Cassel with under a minute left to protect a 20-17 Chargers win in San Diego. The Chiefs seemed to be onto something, scheme-wise, as they picked off Philip Rivers twice and kept the game close despite being awful offensively in the first half as Cassel struggled.
Since that game, the Chargers have been shaky while the Chiefs, winners of three straight, have impressed. Interesting, too, that the Chargers are set to face the meat of their schedule after this game (vs. Green Bay and Oakland, at Chicago) right as the Chiefs' slate (vs. Miami and Denver) eases before a trip to New England. But the focus in this game is on Rivers, who threw another two picks Sunday and looks little like the MVP candidate he was entering this season. Can the Chiefs, who had six interceptions and two pick-sixes on Sunday at Oakland, short-circuit another passing game out West?
The Chiefs just picked six against the Raiders and the Jets just shut down Rivers in a win, so it's clear that these two put together could equal a predictable outcome. Yet the Chargers will be working to stop the Chiefs secondary and the Chiefs have to know they'll still have a difficult match on their hands. That's what makes this match-up so exciting to preview.