On Thursday, Peter King of Sports Illustrated said that the Falcons and Chiefs opener is the "Game of the Weekend," as it should feature plenty of explosive plays between two teams with plenty of playmakers. However, he chose to lean in favor of the Falcons, picking them to beat the Chiefs 33-26 on Sunday, due to the absence of pass rusher Tamba Hali against an Atlanta offense that will want to throw deep.
Having watched the Chiefs all through training camp and preseason, though, Joel Thorman of Arrowhead Pride thinks it will be the home team that takes the opener. In fact, he cites the home crowd in the season opener as his reasoning for picking a 23-20 win for the Chiefs:
It's the home crowd, it's the season opener, Arrowhead will be rockin'.
However, while the game is considered to be a close one among two playoff contending teams, it appears that most analysts are leaning in King's direction, picking the Falcons to win in Week 1. Of NFL.com's four experts, only Gregg Rosenthal took the Chiefs to win while Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Jim Reineking all picked the Falcons.
Read more on the Chiefs at Arrowhead Pride and SB Nation Kansas City. Head over to our NFL hub page for additional news and analysis around the league.
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