Quote
EternalHorns
We basically play both KC and DEN on the road, since the KC game is in Mexico... although I would be willing to guess that there are more Rams fans in Mexico than KC (feels like Los Angeles should have a greater cultural connection than Kansas City, but what do I know).
Denver's defense looked pretty stout, especially against the pass. At the same time, their running game was gobbling up huge chunk yards. They tried to play a relatively low-scoring, ball-control game against Kansas City and nearly succeeded. Only some Russell Wilson-like theatrics from Mahomes snatched the victory away from their otherwise pretty good gameplan. On the other hand, Keenum reminds me of some of the upper-level journeymen of the past. Guys like Brad Johnson. He can have a great game now and then, but he just isn't on that elite level. Denver's O-Line struggled to protect Keenum, but that was mostly on the edge... which is precisely the weakness of our D-Line / LB play, so it's not a lock that we'll have the same success.
Looking at Kansas City... Denver did a great job of exposing how you can limit their success, at least through the first three quarters of football. One thing they did an excellent job of initially was taking Kelce away... but remember how we struggled a bit with Jared Cooks in Oakland? If we can't shut down Kelce like Denver did (at first), we may have some real trouble with that Mahomes-to-Kelce connection. KC's O-Line is also suspect, but again, that was mostly on the outside where we haven't gotten as much pressure. I thought that outside of Kelce, Kansas City's receivers were not that special last night, even the much-touted Tareek Hill. They dropped a lot of passes when under tight coverage (compared to, say, the way Goff and his receivers have thrived with those tight throws). That said, we're really going to miss Talib when we play Kansas City.
Right now... I think Denver looks like the tougher matchup. The game got away from them in the last quarter, but that was almost all incredible play by Mahomes. I believe Goff can match that in his own way, although it will obviously look very different (he's not going to be doing any left-handed shotput passes). It didn't look, to me, like Kansas City will be able to take "our game" away from us. So, even if it turns into a shootout, I think we have more weapons than they do. Denver, however, showed some potential to take away what we do and make us win outside our comfort zone. I think that makes for the tougher game.
KC is 4-0. You are what your record says you are.
Beyond that, KC has just as many weapons as we do. Watkins is a big part of that offense and last night he got injured in the 1st quarter. That slowed them down.
But their WR room rivals ours, their TE is far superior, but we have Gurley. Hunt is good but he's not equal to #30.
That's one game where I believe we'll have to outscore them.
I'm leaning towards an LA win but a L against KC wouldn't surprise me.
On the other hand, Denver doesn't look special. They only scored 23 against an atrocious KC defense.
I think our D could hold Denver to around 17. There's no way they can stop us from putting up at least that much. And once we get the lead, they're forced to abandon the run game to keep up.
LA over Denver in a blowout.
