NFL
By Steve Rogers
The Minnesota Vikings are at home after getting their first win of the season in Carolina. most teams would be excited to come home and start a winning streak. However, that will be a lot harder said than done this week as the Kansas City Chiefs are coming to town. Yes, those KC Chiefs with the Super Bowl wins and currently holding the Lombardi trophy. Not only do they have an uphill battle facing the best quarterback in the league Patrick Mahomes but now they have to deal with the added support of the billions of traveling Taylor Swift fans. Known as “Swifties”. As we all know the Chief’s star tight end Travis Kelce is publically romantically involved with the worldwide pop superstar.
Patrick Mahomes has seemingly accomplished everything in his five years as a full-time starter, except for one thing. Mahomes has never faced the Minnesota Vikings the only team he hasn’t beaten as a starter. Mahomes is meticulous with his mental focus. He knows he hasn’t played the Vikings yet and he wants to win all the time. It goes without saying that Travis Kelce is still Mahomes’s favorite “Go to” target.
Travis Kelce is a matchup nightmare every week. He’s not the only factor defenses have to look out for on this Chiefs offense. The Chiefs seem to have found their running back of the now and future in Isiah Pacheco. Pacheco has been running with a ferocity rarely seen anymore. He’s averaging 4.9 yards per carry this year. This might be the most complete Chiefs offense we’ve seen thus far. That says a lot as they have been one of the best overall offenses for the past few years. If Pacheco can have the kind of running success that Philadelphia Eagles running back Deandre Swift had against the Vikings in week two then it could be a long day yet again for the Vikings defense.
The Minnesota Vikings have been putting up plenty of offensive numbers over the first four weeks. Unfortunately, they have suffered from the turnover bug, and several bad bounces along the way. After getting their first win against the Panthers last week they’ll look to build on the momentum of that victory. With the defending champs coming to town that might be a tall order. Quarterback Kirk Cousins is averaging 300 yards passing per game so far. Star wide receiver Justin Jefferson is averaging 135 yards receiving per game. It will certainly take more of the same against the Chiefs. The Vikings finally opened up some holes and created a running game. That will definitely help them be more than one-dimensional moving forward. This could come down to a battle of two of the best tight ends in the game. T.J. Hockenson versus Travis Kelce. Kelce has all the accolades and Hockenson has all the Benjamins.
The Minnesota Vikings will need to put together and execute a nearly perfect game plan in order to pull off one of the biggest upsets of a home underdog ever. Statistically speaking Cousins is ahead of Mahomes in completions 108 to 92, passing yards 1214 to 1006, and touchdowns 11 to 8. According to the stats Cousins had his best game of the season back in week two against the Eagles. If Cousins can play like he did against the team that represented the NFC in last year’s Super Bowl then he gives the Vikings a puncher’s chance against the defending Super Bowl champs in the Chiefs.
The betting line opened the week with the Chiefs as an almost 7-point favorite. That has since fallen all the way down to 3.5 points. That is how I felt at the start of the week I was sure this was going to be a blowout, but as the week went on I realised this might be a closer game than most are expecting. I’m still on the fence about the 3.5 points. On one hand, I can see the Chiefs winning by seven plus points something like 31-23. However, I can also see this being kind of close like 27-24. Either way, I am going with the Chiefs over the Vikings.
