NFL preview: Denver Broncos host Kansas City Chiefs at Mile High live on Sky Sports
Sunday 14 September 2014 20:37, UK
It could be a rough night for the Kansas City Chiefs as they head to Mile High to take on AFC West rivals Denver Broncos in Sunday’s second Sky Sports live game.
When the Broncos won the first of two convincing victories over the Chiefs last November, Kansas City went into the game unbeaten ahead of making the playoffs, this time, only in week two, they’ve already lost and are struggling.
Live NFL
With no real offence to speak of and down a couple of star defenders, the Chiefs are already staring down the barrel with one of the toughest road tests – a trip to Denver – next up on the horizon.
It’s going to take a huge effort for them to stop Peyton manning and co, who looked great against a fine Colts team in their season opener, and they’re big favourites to go 2-0 in their bid to get right back to the Super Bowl.
Here’s what else to look out for in this one…
Manning up
So no sign of Manning having a Super Bowl hangover then? He and his offence got right back into their stride on opening night with a win over the Colts – Manning finding Julius Thomas for three first half TDs. He also showed no signs of missing the suspended Wes Welker as he found an instant rapport with new signing Emmanuel Sanders who caught six passes for 77 yards and looked a perfect fit for this up-tempo offence. Manning showed no signs of age creeping up on him and you just know that defeat against Seattle has only served to fire him up even more, and that’s a bad thing for opposing defences this season.
Feasting on Chiefs
The Chiefs looked great last year, especially on defence, until they were ripped apart by Denver in two divisional games when they yielded an average of 481 yards a game. Manning passed for 300 yards in both games and a combined six touchdowns, and has 11 total TDs in four wins over the Chiefs. Receiver Demaryius Thomas did not make a big impact last week, but he also likes facing the Chiefs with three straight 100-yard receiving games against them. Throw in Montee Ball rushing for a career-best 117 yards in the last meeting and you’ve got stats that make for bad reading for the visitors.
Defensive adjustments
As if it couldn’t get any worse, the Chiefs lost linebacker Derrick Johnson and tackle Mike DeVito to Achilles tendon injuries last week, and Andy Reid needs to find an adequate plan to cover for those loses against arguably the most dangerous opponent in the league. Pressuring Manning may be the way to go, as he’s not the best mover in the league, and the Chiefs do have two premium pass rushers in Justin Houston and Tamba Hali. Just how much they can get that duo in and around Manning may well be the key to the chiefs staying in the game.
Find Charles
Jamaal Charles is one of the best playmakers in the game, but the star running back somehow only got 11 touches of the ball last week – seven runs and four receptions for 34 total yards. Having a dual-threat running back who scored 19 TDs and had 1980 total yards from scrimmage last season and giving him just 11 touches is simply not the way to win games. Andy Reid has taken the blame for that, but it’s still worrying that even during the game they would not, or could not, get him the ball more often. Expect that to be rectified in Denver.
Ground game
Denver’s run defence allowed just 54 yards last week, but Indy are a passing team so that stat could be misleading, and Charles did average just a tick under five yards per carry against the Broncos last year. Montee Ball, as stated, had a career day against the Chiefs last year and looked good in his first start last week with 67 yards and a TD. Perhaps the Chiefs need the ground game to work more than Manning’s Broncos, but if either team can get the better of the ground engagement it’ll set them up nicely.
Quotes
"I want to see the ball more and coach knows that. It's a long season, just one game. We can get worse or we can get good. My job is to get the team good,” Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles wants the ball.
"I think our division is the toughest division in football. You throw what happened last week out the window. It's a division game, two teams very familiar with each other, physical football and that's how we're going to have to play on Sunday,” Peyton Manning on the AFC West.
"We just failed to get him the ball. Absolutely. One of our biggest playmakers, if not the biggest playmaker. Certainly need to get him involved more. That's on all of us, though. For me, I'm kind of worried about executing and doing my job,” Alex Smith plans to feed Charles.
