Arrowhead Report's Tucker Franklin and Conner Christopherson break down the remaining games on the Kansas City Chiefs schedule after the bye week.
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00:00 So let's talk about what we came here to talk about today.
00:03 And these last seven games of the schedule, Chiefs are 8-1.
00:07 If I would have told you, Connor, at the start of the season that Chiefs would be 8-1 going into the bye week, what would your reaction been?
00:12 I think I was expecting 7-2, so overall pretty happy.
00:19 They had some tough games early on.
00:21 They've actually had two signature wins against the Bills, who are now 7-2.
00:28 And what was the other team? The Ravens, who are now 7-1, I think.
00:34 No, 7-2 also, I believe.
00:37 Because Steelers and Chiefs, who are two AFC hopefuls, so that's really nice.
00:43 I think the only thing is, I did not expect the one loss to be the Raiders.
00:48 I was like, oh, it could be to the Bills, the Patriots, the Ravens. I don't know.
00:55 It could be any of them, but it was to the Raiders.
00:58 So overall, still, I'm pretty happy, especially if we beat the Raiders coming out of the bye week.
01:05 I think 9-1 going into the last half of the year is a good place to be.
01:09 And it's only made slightly uncomfortable by the Steelers being undefeated.
01:14 So I agree with that. The Steelers look good, but they looked vulnerable in their game against the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football.
01:22 Or was it just an afternoon game?
01:25 Man, all those games run together after the noon game.
01:29 The Sunday Night Football game was the lambasting of Tom Brady and the Buccaneers.
01:35 How could I forget that?
01:37 I didn't actually get to watch that game because I was working on the podcast,
01:40 but I just kept seeing notifications come up on my phone about,
01:44 you know, Jameis at the end of the game was eating W's and Jameis comes in and plays.
01:49 And I saw memes of like Jameis Winston could have had a better stat line than Tom Brady did.
01:53 But just really people are ready to bury Tom Brady.
01:57 It was I watched the first day I had to turn off after that.
02:01 I was just like, this is kind of sad to watch.
02:05 Yeah, I don't know what happened, honestly.
02:08 I think this the Saints just know how to play against the Bucs.
02:14 Yeah, and I think they're getting healthier.
02:16 They had Michael Thomas for this game, so they're probably a better team overall.
02:20 I think they also got Cam Jordan back, too.
02:24 So that's two really good players for them that came back.
02:28 But you would think it would have been closer than that,
02:31 especially because like we saw DVOA said that the Bucs were number one by quite a bit going into that game.
02:41 And then they dropped 11.6% in DVOA total DVOA after that game.
02:48 And the Saints actually jumped up to number one because of it.
02:51 Wow.
02:52 It's like a game like that hasn't really existed in DVOA this century.
02:58 And they even said that this was the biggest swing.
03:00 So it was quite a weird game because I don't think anybody really expected that.
03:05 Yeah, those are both teams that the Chiefs will face this season, too,
03:09 which I was interesting to see how that reacted.
03:12 The Bucs are dropping both of those games to the Saints.
03:15 And even when people are very quick to bury quarterbacks, especially old quarterbacks,
03:20 people were quick to bury Drew Brees after he had a poor performance.
03:23 Was that against the Bears?
03:24 And then he had not a very good game.
03:28 He had a couple of bad games in a row, and people were ready to say Drew Brees is done.
03:31 He can't throw the ball downfield.
03:33 Michael Thomas only runs slants because Drew Brees can't throw the ball past five yards downfield.
03:37 And now people are ready to bury Tom Brady.
03:39 He always washed up.
03:40 He can't do anything.
03:41 You start to see a little bit with Russell Wilson.
03:44 Now he throws, what was it, three interceptions against the Bills?
03:46 Four turnovers against the Bills.
03:49 Two interceptions, two fumbles.
03:51 So he has four turnovers and people are like, well, get him out of the MVP race.
03:54 This isn't an MVP.
03:56 We're just so quick to bury people now.
03:59 And I just find it interesting to see how Holmes has risen in the MVP contention.
04:06 He hasn't really had a terrible game.
04:07 I think against Buffalo, you could probably say was one of his worst statistical games.
04:11 But maybe it wasn't Buffalo.
04:14 Does that give me a 200 yards in?
04:15 Yeah, he had 200 yards, one touchdown.
04:18 But the Chiefs also ran for 245 yards.
04:22 Right, yeah.
04:22 It's interesting.
04:25 Splitting hairs, really.
04:27 I think from 2018 when Mahomes won MVP, that conversation honestly drained me mentally.
04:36 Just talking about MVP for the whole year.
04:38 So I think this year I'm going to kind of like check out of it and check in like after the
04:42 season's over and then we can go, okay, now we have the full season to talk about.
04:47 Let's just actually talk about who's MVP.
04:49 Usually by the end of the year, we know who's going to win it.
04:52 Most years are like that.
04:54 So and then arguing over it in week nine, it's just like, is this really a good use of my time?
05:00 I don't know.
05:01 I think I could do better things right now.
05:02 I think that's fair.
05:05 So let's look at the games that the Chiefs have to round out this season.
05:08 They have the Vegas Raiders right after this.
05:11 That game could be a bloodbath, I've speculated, just because of Andy Reid off of a bye week,
05:16 the animosity going into Las Vegas.
05:19 What do you want to call it?
05:24 The atmosphere is there.
05:25 The situation is right for it to be really in the Chiefs' favor.
05:28 What do you think about that matchup?
05:30 Yeah, I think we've seen a few Chiefs players even comment on how
05:34 they're looking forward to this game.
05:36 So I know Raiders fans, and I'm guessing the Raiders organization as well,
05:43 are not happy for playing the Chiefs off their bye week for the third straight year, apparently.
05:48 I don't know why the schedule makers hate the Raiders that much, but I'm here for it.
05:53 I think the Chiefs will win by two scores.
05:58 I just think they're going to be extremely motivated for this,
06:02 because the Raiders are kind of the first team that have
06:04 knocked them off their pedestal since the Super Bowl.
06:07 I think that probably stuck with a lot of the players,
06:12 and having an extra week to also prepare for is just kind of unfair.
06:15 So I'm expecting them to come out of guns blazing.
06:19 I think the Raiders are vulnerable, and I think they just caught the Chiefs at a weird time in
06:24 the earlier game this year.
06:26 I would agree with that.
06:29 That was not a very Kansas City Chiefs-like game.
06:31 I was just looking to see if they have a Futures line out for it, if Vegas does.
06:35 But they don't yet.
06:37 That makes sense, because a lot of the lines for these week's games aren't even set yet.
06:42 But I think the Vegas game will be interesting.
06:43 Another interesting game right after that,
06:46 which you could potentially call Vegas a trap game.
06:48 I don't think it's going to be.
06:50 But the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
06:52 They go down to Tampa Bay.
06:54 They take on the Bucs.
06:55 And I'll tell you this, I'll tell you this, Connor.
06:57 I'm a lot less worried about the Buccaneers than I was a couple of weeks ago.
07:01 I don't get the Bucs.
07:03 Did Chris Godwin play on Sunday night?
07:06 I believe he was out there.
07:08 So their offense is like literally so different when he's playing.
07:13 It is.
07:13 I don't get why, per se.
07:17 I mean, he's a great player, but it's it's like not good when he plays.
07:21 So I'm guessing he'll be back for that.
07:25 His injury was like a fractured finger.
07:27 So I think he'll be back in a few weeks.
07:30 I don't get what's going on between Mike Evans and Tom Brady.
07:35 Like, did Mike Evans like slap Tom Brady in practice or something?
07:38 I don't know what the chemistry, what's going on with that chemistry.
07:43 And we didn't really see Antonio Brown do too much either.
07:46 I don't know if I'm afraid of him yet.
07:49 I think he'll have to prove.
07:50 He'll have to prove that he is ready to play in the NFL again
07:55 before I'm actually afraid of Brown.
07:58 They already had a good slot receiver in Scotty Miller.
08:01 So I don't know if right now Brown's much of an upgrade.
08:05 It might take a while for him to get integrated in the offense.
08:07 We'll see.
08:08 And I thought the Bucks defense was really good.
08:12 It's just the Saints.
08:14 Maybe the Saints just knew how to play against it.
08:16 They played against mostly that defense last year, too.
08:19 So they've seen it before.
08:21 And you know how division games sometimes go.
08:23 So we saw that defense stifling Aaron Rodgers.
08:26 That was literally his only bad game all year.
08:28 So I think the Chiefs shouldn't be underdogs.
08:35 I think it's a true 50/50 type game, especially because it's away.
08:38 And I think it's definitely going to be an interesting gauge for how the Chiefs
08:43 are heading into the last half of the schedule.
08:45 Yeah, if anything, when it comes to the Vegas line,
08:48 I could see the Bucks getting three and a half, maybe,
08:51 just because the home team usually gets three points.
08:53 That's how it goes when it comes to line making.
08:55 That game will be interesting.
08:57 I'm not going to pick against the Chiefs.
08:58 I really don't.
08:59 We don't have a reason to pick against the Chiefs.
09:01 I don't think at this point when you look at these matchups.
09:04 Yeah, the Vegas game was weird, but I think we all feel that it's an anomaly,
09:08 that it wasn't indicative of this team.
09:10 How it depends, I think for me, how they look coming out of the bye week against the Raiders.
09:16 If they look dominant, if they win by two scores, you know, one score.
09:22 But at the end of the game, the Raiders did their last drive onside kick,
09:27 kind of like the Panthers did.
09:29 And I'll be like, OK, they beat a good team.
09:31 The Raiders are a good team this year.
09:32 So I think they should beat the Bucks if they're playing at their best.
09:36 They don't always play at their best, but I think they should beat the Bucks.
09:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]