Week 8: Chiefs vs. Commanders – Game Preview + Predictions

The Chiefs come on a flip pass to Rice near side. Touchdown Kansas City. Coming off one of the most dominant performances, at least in the Super Bowl era, the Chiefs now go back to Monday Night Football. This time they’ll host the Washington Commanders. Hi everyone, I’m Mitch Schultz along with Matt McMullen. this Washington team, man, they had such expectations, especially after being 12 and five a year ago and being the surprise of the NFC. Yeah, it’s interesting because you’re right, they kind of surprised everyone last year with an awesome season. They go to the NFC Championship game. Now, the challenge for teams like that after a season where maybe you weren’t expected to win and you did win. Well, now you are expected to win. How do you deal with that? Uh, and it’s not all the Commanders fault. They’ve had a lot of injuries this year. Jaden Daniels has missed some time at quarterback this year. They’ve been missing their top three receivers for multiple games this year. And they just lost Dorren Armstrong on defense, their top defender uh to an ACL injury. He’s out for the season. So, they’ve had a lot of adverse situations, now lost two games in a row. They’re three and four on the year. Still very talented, though. And it won’t be easy for the Chiefs no matter who’s out there. Well, they went all in, too, the off season. They only had five draft picks. They traded picks away. They got over two dozen free agents to try to find the next step of taking out the Eagles in the NFC East. But it’s really also about the giveaway takeaway ratio here. Last year, uh, they were okay in that category. Now they’re minus five. They don’t have a a vast amount of giveaways. They’ve given the ball away eight times, but they only have three takeaways. Only the Jets have fewer takeaways than the Commanders in the entire NFL. And their defense overall has struggled this season. Uh, look at their losses specifically. In those four losses, they’re allowing an average of 32.5 points per game to the opponent. They’ve allowed 14 passing plays of 25 or more yards this year, fourth most in the NFL. And overall, they’ve allowed 95 plays of double-digit yardage, also fourth most in the NFL. And you mentioned only three takeaways. Only the Jets have fewer. But again, they’re talented on defense, just banged up over the course of the year. The Chiefs are coming off a game where they moved right down the field against the Raiders. Their first four offensive possessions, they end up with touchdown drives of at least 60 yards. Three of those were touchdown drives of at least 70 yards. Let’s find a way to replicate that offensive performance here against the Commanders on Monday. And two drives were over 90 yards. Like it’s crazy of what the Chiefs did in the game against the Raiders. Now, where are the Commanders dangerous? They can run the ball. They’re number one in the league after seven weeks in 10 plus runs. Crossky Merritt’s been good for them, but they’re offensive line. Remember, they went to go get Laramie Tonsel on the offensive line. They’re also had some high draft picks there. Our old friends Andrew Wy and Nick Aliggretti are there. Although they’ve kind of moved into more supportive roles, but an okay offensive line when healthy and a running attack. Carolina is the only team that runs it more on first and 10 than the Washington Commanders. Sure. And as we’re recording this, we don’t know which of their receivers or if even Jaden Daniels is going to be able to play, but regardless, we know Bill Crosby Merritt is going to be out there and what a player he’s been. Kind of a fun story. a seventh round pick in the draft this year and he’s kind of emerged as their top running back with Austin Eckler out for the season. He’s averaging over five yards per carry. And if you’re looking for ways that this game could go badly for the Chiefs, look at the Commanders and Chargers game just a few weeks ago where Kroski Merritt goes crazy for 111 yards on just 14 carries. Also scored two touchdowns in that game. That was part of a Washington offensive effort that scored 27 unanswered points. Can’t let that happen here in this game. And the key to slowing down this Washington offense, particularly with Jaden Daniels, if he does play, we know he’ll be dealing with a hamstring injury and a knee injury on his other leg. If he can’t be as mobile, Crosky Merritt’s going to get the football a lot. You got to shut him down. Some other areas that get your attention, they’re second in red zone offense when they get down there. And then also, they’re number one in the league after kickoffs in field position. So, there’s enough things there to make the Washington Commanders a worthy opponent for this Monday Night Football game. Sure. And they can still move the ball. So, I was looking into the Commanders, thinking maybe their offense had kind of uh fallen down quite a bit this year. It was the number five scoring offense in the NFL last year. Well, they’re only number nine this year in terms of scoring offense. So, they’re still scoring a lot of points. I mentioned that Chargers game. They scored 27 points in that one. Just a matter of inconsistency, and they haven’t topped 25 points in each of their last two games. Injuries are a big part of that. But, the Chiefs defense is playing some good football right now. Allowed only three first downs to the Raiders last week. Uh that was the fewest first downs allowed in a single game in a regular season game since 2008. Had been a long time. This Chiefs defense is now the number three scoring defense in the NFL. Lead them once again against Washington because these guys have injuries. Sure. And they’ve struggled the last few weeks, but they have talent, particularly if some of their guys are able to play. When you hold a team like the Chiefs defense did last week against the Raiders over 35 game minutes without a first down, crazy. It’s a pretty good performance. I got a feeling Washington get some first downs in this game. But you can also say there’s no hotter team in the National Football League right now than the Kansas City Chiefs.

Voice of the Chiefs Mitch Holthus and senior team reporter Matt McMullen preview the upcoming Week 8 NFL matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Washington Commanders on Monday Night Football.

TUNE IN to Week 8 👇
📺: Chiefs vs Commanders at 7:15 p.m. CT | ABC/ESPN
📻: 96.5 The Fan (eng) & TICO Sports (esp)

Subscribe for more videos! https://bit.ly/2OuOUnB
More Chiefs NFL action! https://bit.ly/2Moa1VR

Follow Our Social Media!
🔴 Website: https://www.chiefs.com/
🟡 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KansasCityChiefs
🔴 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Chiefs
🟡 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chiefs

Download the Chiefs Mobile App:
iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id390783578?mt=8
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yinzcam.nfl.chiefs

#ChiefsKingdom #Chiefs #KansasCityChiefs #NFL #Football

17 comments
Leave a Reply