The Kansas City Chiefs are coming off their most embarrassing loss of the season. Washington Football Team presents a perfect opportunity to bounce back.
Andy Reid and the Chiefs have a lot of work to do if they want to secure a spot in the playoffs.
Saying that just a few weeks ago would have felt like madness, but Kansas City’s struggles reached red alert on Sunday night against the Bills.
They’ll be back in action in Week 6 with a battle against the Washington Football Team, who are also 2-3 and coming off a loss.
Will the Chiefs get the bad taste out of their mouth? Or could things actually get worse?
5 bold predictions for the Chiefs vs. the Washington Football Team
Josh Gordon will catch a touchdown
Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce both got banged up during the loss to the Bills. Fortunately, neither look in danger of missing the game against Washington.
Hill suffered a “minor” knee injury, per Adam Schefter. However, his sources claimed he wasn’t expected to miss any time. Kelce had a stinger.
Both of those guys are good enough to play at a very high level despite the injuries, but the Chiefs may want to focus in on some other weapons in their offense.
One of those weapons is Josh Gordon.
Gordon played nine snaps in his debut with the Chiefs after quickly getting up to speed learning the playbook and proving his conditioning. His role should only grow in the coming weeks.
This week could be the perfect opportunity to test some things out with Gordon specifically. WFT’s defense has been plagued by defensive breakdowns all season. Gordon is always a potential mismatch.
Look for Mahomes to find Gordon in the endzone in this one.
Daniel Sorensen will finally get benched
Daniel Sorensen might have something on Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. No matter how badly he struggles, the DC insists on leaving him in the game.
Against Buffalo, Sorensen played 100 percent of the defensive snaps for Kansas City. That’s despite giving up long touchdowns, blowing coverage, missing tackles (he leads the NFL with 12 in five games) and embarrassingly being outrun by Josh Allen on a scramble.
Sorensen has become a symbol for everything wrong with the Chiefs defense. It’s time for him to be benched.
Spagnuolo really seems to like him, but even he will have to acknowledge the 31-year-old is a detriment to the defense when he’s on the field.
Kansas City could turn to Juan Thornhill or Armani Watts. They could bring up Devon Key or Zayne Anderson from the practice squad. The fact of the matter is Sorensen hasn’t earned his playing time with his performance.
Sunday was rock bottom for the Chiefs defense. They’ll only dig deeper if they keep giving Sorensen playing time.
The Chiefs defense will finally hold an opponent under 29 points
There’s no question, the biggest issue Kansas City faces in Week 6 is getting their defense in order.
On the plus side, they don’t have to worry about facing the high-powered Bills offense this time around.
The Chiefs have yet to hold an opponent under 29 points with their lowest total allowed against the Browns in Week 1. It’s been all downhill from there on defense culminating in a humbling outing against the Bills. One Buffalo touchdown came via a pick six, so the defense only conceded 31 points. It felt much worse than that with Josh Allen and company averaging 8.1 yards per game.
Washington is averaging 24.6 points per game this season. That’s an improvement on 20.9 ppg in 2020. They’ve scored 30 or more points in two of their last four games, against the Falcons and Giants.
Kansas City can take nothing for granted here. They rank well below Atlanta and New York in defense so far.
Still, Taylor Heinicke isn’t Allen and his receiving corps doesn’t have anyone in the class of Stefon Diggs.
This will be the week the Chiefs make it out without the defense looking utterly clueless.
Patrick Mahomes will throw four touchdowns
Patrick Mahomes hasn’t looked like his MVP-self for most of this season. He’s forced throws and looked uncomfortable behind a shaky offensive line. With the pressure mounting to make up for a deficient defense, he looks like he’s playing with the world on his shoulders.
In the past, you would expect Mahomes to play like a superstar even against the best defenses. He hasn’t been able to do that this year, but it’s worth pointing out his struggles have come against some decent opposition.
The Bills, Chargers, Ravens and Browns are Top 15 defenses so far in terms of points allowed. The one time the Chiefs have faced a defense ranking in the bottom half of the league, they put up 42 points on the Eagles.
The only team that has allowed more points this season is Washington. It’s no wonder how since the last three quarterbacks who have faced the Football Team — Josh Allen, Matt Ryan and Jameis Winston — have thrown for four touchdowns each.
Mahomes will match that output this week.
Patrick Mahomes’ interception streak will come to an end
Mahomes’ struggles this year have been especially apparent in the turnover column. He’s already thrown as many interceptions this season as he did through 15 appearances last year. At this pace, he’ll surpass his career-high 12 interceptions in 2018.
The 2018 season was Mahomes’ MVP year, so he clearly overcame the interception total. However, he won the opening five games of that campaign. This year it’s different and his team really needs him to take care of the football. The defense has enough problems without handing the opposition extra possessions.
During that 2018 campaign, Mahomes had a career-long streak of five games with an interception. He’s got a four-game streak this year.
The good news? That streak is going to come to an end against WFT.
Why? Because Ron Rivera’s team just doesn’t pick off the ball off very often. They rank among the bottom three teams in the league in terms of interceptions with just two. The only team that didn’t pick off Mahomes this season, Cleveland, is right there with them.