Our offense vs. their defense: Kansas City Chiefs
The New Orleans Saints have their biggest challenge of the season coming up; they will be on the road again, this time to face off with the back-to-back Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs on Monday night football.
The Saints are coming off a heartbreaking loss to the Atlanta Falcons in a game they shouldâve easily won if it werenât for some stupid mistakes. On the other side, the Chiefs rallied to comeback and beat the Los Angeles Chargers, 17-10 in the afternoon slate.
Letâs call it how it is. This is going to be a very difficult task for the Saints. The Chiefs have a top 10 scoring defense, allowing 18.0 points per game, and this game is held in one of the hardest places to play in the league. Plus, itâs MNF in Arrowhead… there are going to be some iffy penalties called on the Saints, especially if the game is close late.
The Saints offense is going to be nearly flawless this weekend to get the win over the Chiefs. They had a solid outing against Atlanta, but they had four straight drives in the middle of the game where they didnât score, and that cannot happen on Monday.
Derek Carr and the Saints passing attack have cooled off since their red-hot start to the season. In his last two games, Carr has completed 42 of his 61 attempts for 381 yards but has only throw one touchdown to two interceptions. However, the Chiefs defense hasnât been great against the pass, allowing 227.8 yards per game, which ranks 24th in the NFL.
On the outside, Chris Olave has been cooking recently. Heâs gone for 80+ yards in each of the last three games, but heâs only been able to get into the end zone once. He will likely be shadowed by Trent McDuffie, who has been the Chiefs best corner this year. As the main defender, McDuffie has allowed 10 of his 15 targets to be caught for just 92 yards and no touchdowns. This will be a fun matchup to watch, and itâll go a long way in determining which side comes out on top.
One area the Chiefs defense has really excelled is limiting the opposing RBs receiving threat. Bijan Robinson (21), JK Dobbins (30) and Zack Moss (13) have all been held under 30 receiving yards in their games against the Chiefs. The only one who has gone over 30 yards is Justice Hill, who had 52 yards way back in week one.
Alvin Kamara, who is playing with broken ribs, is going to need to be a factor in the passing game this week. He has 20 catches for 174 yards through four games and is coming off a seven-reception game, so heâs going to need to have that same type of production versus the Chiefs, especially when they get pressure on Carr.
The Saints were very efficient running the football with Kamara prior to Eric McCoyâs injury. They were averaging over 5.5 yards per carry in their first two weeks, but that number has now dropped to below four yards per carry. They were definitely better against the Falcons than they were against the Eagles, but theyâll need to find a way to be even better against the Chiefs, who have been very good against the run, allowing less than 100 yards per game on the ground. You canât let them stuff the run and make you a one-dimensional offense, because their pass rush will get pressure on Carr and force him to make some mistakes if they canât run it.
Luckily for the Saints offensive line, the Chiefs havenât been great at sacking the quarterback. Theyâre averaging just two sacks per game through four weeks, but Chris Jones has been a wrecking ball on the interior of the defensive line, and that really worries me. The middle of the Saints O-line is their weakest spot, and if Shane Lemieux isnât ready, Jones is going to single handedly wreck this game.
If the Saints offense plays like they did last week, I donât think theyâll win this game. They need to be more efficient and canât afford to have another dry spell where they donât score for 4+ drives.
The offensive line is going to need to play its best game to date. They need to open up holes in the run game and do whatever is necessary to stop Chris Jones from getting to Carr. If they can do those two things, I think theyâll have a decent shot at winning this football game.
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