Peter King makes some good points in his prediction from his Monday Morning Quarterback Column that the Kansas City Chiefs will lose to the San Diego Chargers tonight on Monday Night Football. He knows the crowd at Arrowhead Stadium will be a major factor. He also points out how the Chiefs current winning streak was totally unexpected, and how Philip Rivers has to kick it in gear sometime. For all of those reasons, King goes with the Chargers to win 33-20.
He writes, “Never in September did I think I’d write this sentence this season: The Chiefs haven’t lost in 36 days. I probably won’t be able to write it again this year, but it was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it? I am picking this game on blind faith, because after watching the Chargers cough up that game last week in New Jersey, you’ve got to figure that Philip Rivers starts being Philip Rivers again soon. Like, tonight. But part of Rivers having a shot against the resurgent Chiefs is Ryan Mathews carrying his load, because San Diego’s going to need to take a voracious crowd out of the game, and the way you do that is with some long drives early. Mathews is the key to those.”
The last line is likely true. Mathews is the key. If Mathews can make a strong impact, he’s a force to receive out of the backfield as well as move the chains along the ground and that will force the linebackers to open up the middle. A healthy Antonio Gates could make all kinds of noise. In short, the Chargers offense could become the Chargers offense again. It’s going to take a mammoth effort for KC to win, but they have the momentum and they know what it takes to beat this team. They almost did just that a few weeks ago.