The NFL is coming under a clear divide, and the best teams are standing out while the bad teams are making themselves known. From here on out, making bets on teams should get a lot easier.
Things became clear in the NFL in Week 6. We learned many things, including that every NFC East team is probably worse than we thought coming into the season, the Los Angeles Rams desperately needed a spark and probably got one, and the New Orleans Saints are great no matter who’s under center.
This week, we see a couple of teams desperate to save their season, including the two teams in the Tennessee Titans-Los Angeles Chargers matchup. With the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are all on bye, we lose some of the biggest question marks from week to week. This week, the biggest question we’ll be facing in many of these matchups is not who’s going to win, but whether they can cover the spread (which, to be fair, is the question you came here for us to answer).
All odds via The Action Network.
Last Week: 6-8
Season Record: 42-50-1
Kansas City Chiefs (-3) at Denver Broncos
This is a tale of two teams. The Kansas City Chiefs were once considered one of the top two teams in all of the NFL. With Patrick Mahomes at the helm, they seemed unstoppable. No matter the hole the defense might put them in, Mahomes was easily able to get them out of it. Until he couldn’t. Mahomes suffered an ankle injury two weeks ago, and now he’s slightly worse than he was. He’s still probably the best quarterback in football, but it’s no longer by a large margin.
Meanwhile, the Denver Broncos looked dead in the water after going through the first four weeks without a win. Now, they are giving up less than five points to one of the Super Bowl contenders. The Broncos beat the Chargers and the Titans in consecutive weeks. Now, we aren’t sure how impressive that might be, but after looking like a mess in September, they are now 2-4. Their defense has been great, especially considering they lost Bradley Chubb for the season.
Despite coming off of two straight losses, we just can’t see the Chiefs losing this game. In fact, on short rest with their latest loss to the Texans fresh in their mind, they will be as motivated as ever to show they are still a top AFC contender. The talent level of the Chiefs is still far and away better than the Broncos. This is a team led by an old Joe Flacco. We think their offense can do alright against the Chiefs defense, but with Tyreek Hill back in the lineup, we can’t see that Broncos offense keeping pace with Kansas City. Pick: Kansas City (-3)