Week 6: Chiefs vs. Lions – Game Preview + Predictions

Week 6: Chiefs vs. Lions – Game Preview + Predictions

Fourth down and goal to go at the one. He will sneak it. Stretching the football out and now the ball is loose. Did the Chiefs knock it out? They did. The Chiefs are used to the prime time stage and this time they just switch stages. They go from the Monday night stage to the Sunday night stage, but this time they’re taking on what I think is the best team right now in the National Football League, the Detroit Lions. Mitch Holt with you along with Matt McMullen. This Detroit team, I’m looking for weaknesses. I’m still looking. Yeah, I think the Lions play maybe the best complimentary football in the NFL right now. They’re fundamentally sound. They’re tough. They’re physical. They really take on the persona of their head coach and Dan Campbell. And it’s been cool to see. I mean, he’s built this thing along with their front office and Brad Holmes, their general manager, from the ground up. And yeah, I’m with you right now. They’re probably the best team in football. The same transformation the Lions have gone through is what the Chiefs went through at the beginning stages of Andy Reid and has continued. So, it’s been impressive to see what’s gone with a longtime franchise there, but they’re setting records. The fact that they could be back-to-back scoring champions in the NFL, that’s not happened since the 0809 Saints. And if they continue at this pace at about 35 points a game, that would be the best back-to back performance point total to point total since the 4142 Bears. That gives you an idea of how explosive this Lions team is. And that’s including only scoring 13 points against Green Bay in week one. super inexplicable. Still trying to figure that one out. Let’s let’s look at that tape and figure out what the Packers did to slow down this offense because since then they’ve scored at least 34 points in all four of their games. They’re averaging more than 40 points per game in that span. And these guys possess the ball a lot. They play ball control. Uh they have the ball for over 32 minutes on average. Near the very top of the NFL. They love to run the football. Obviously, these guys have 152 rushing attempts this year, second most of any team in the NFL. and they’re effective at it, rushing for 135 yards per game between David Montgomery and Jamir Gibbs. And that then sets up their passing game with Jared Goff. Yeah, those two guys together, McGomery and Gibbs, the best one-two puncher in the league right now, they’ve had 14 times where they’ve both had a touchdown in a game. And that hasn’t happened since the Cowboys of the early 90s. You look at Jonathan Taylor and the awesome year he’s having with the Colts. Well, if you combine these two guys, McGomery and Gibbs, they have 635 yards. That’d be 130 yards more than Jonathan Taylor. Then you throw in the passing game and I’m on Ross St. Brown who’s putting up big-time numbers. We know Jameson Williams has a chance to be a good player. Now Sam Leaporta is being used. He was great against the Bengals. And Jared Goff is the point guard of the whole thing. And he leads the NFL in completion percentage right now at 75%. Uh but sometimes that stat can be misleading if it’s all just short passes. Not the case with Goff. He’s averaging over eight yards per attempt this year. So completing 75% of your passes while averaging over eight yards per attempt, that’s an impressive combination. And you’re right, he has weapons everywhere. Uh players that can do different things in their offense. Aman Ross St. Brown leads the NFL in receiving touchdowns right now with six, but Sam Laaporta can play that physical tough tight end kind of game while Jameson Williams can stretch the field uh both horizontally and vertically much like Xavier Worthy can for the Chiefs. And defensively, the Lions are really good. Aiden Hutchinson last year got injured in week five out for the year. This year, he’s been phenomenal. Four straight games with a sack. uh his pressures. He just pressured Cincinnati completely out of the game. But then you got Kirby Joseph on the back end who’s had the most interceptions in his first four years uh as a safety since Ed Reed, the Pro Football Hall of Famer of the Ravens. So, they’ve got it front, middle, and back. Great linebackers, pass rush up front, and a very aggressive defensive back group that will pick the pass. Yeah, they’re opportunistic. It’s kind of funny. It’s like a copy and paste almost from the Jags defense from last week when I was kind of diving into them. Uh, the Lions have forced nine takeaways this year, third most of any team in the NFL. They have 41 points off those takeaways. That’s third most of any team in the league. And they have 13 drives this season that have began in opponent territory. This Lions offense is way too good to give them more opportunities and to let them start on your side of the 50. Uh, so for the Chiefs in this game, it’s all about winning the turnover margin. It was kind of the same key we had for last week. You got to make sure you don’t turn the ball over against Jacksonville. Unfortunately, that 99 yard pick six ended up being the difference in the game. Same thing against Detroit. I dug into this since the beginning of the 2023 season. The Lions are 19-0 when they win the turnover margin. They have not lost when they’ve won the turnover margin over the last 2 and 1/2 seasons. Only Buffalo has more wins in that situation over the last 2 and 1/2 years. When they lose the turnover margin, and it doesn’t happen often, but when they lose it, they are just 5-6 over the last two and a half seasons. So top priority for the Chiefs in this game, don’t turn it over and force a couple turnovers yourself defensively. And if you think special teams is a weakness, nope. Khalif Raymond punt return for a touchdown. Remember him as a he had a touchdown against the Chiefs uh when he was with the Titans. But their kicker is great and their punter is an allp pro punter and set an NFL record for net punting. So no weaknesses there either. But for the Chiefs, they’re coming in now putting together two really good offensive performances for the most part, at least in volume. and you’re seeing it start to grow there. And defensively, it was just a matter of having glitches in all three phases against the Jaguars. Well, you can’t have glitches against the Lions, but this Chiefs team is trending forward. Yeah, couldn’t agree more. I mean, look at the Chiefs offense last week. Coach Reed said it. You can outstat a team to death. Doesn’t matter if you lose the game. But it still is a good sign for the Chiefs offense that they piled up nearly 500 yards last week against Jacksonville, the number five scoring defense in the NFL. And Patrick Mahomes was brilliant. uh, of course wants the pick six back, but other than that, he accounts for 387 yards of total offense against Jacksonville. A really good Jags defense. Uh, that was the fourth most uh, total yards by a single player in a game this season. So, the offense is trending upward. U,, I love how Mahomes spread the football all over the place. Taquan Thornton, uh, Hollywood Brown, Juju Miss Schustster, Xavier Worthy, obviously Travis Kelce, all those players had explosive plays against Jacksonville. Let’s find a way to keep doing that. And defensively, you’re right, they are so close. It was a matter of the penalties. Uh 13 penalties for the Chiefs last week against the Jags. That was their most penalties in a single game since that crazy game against the Rams back in 2018. Been a long time since the Chiefs have had that many penalties. I don’t suspect that’ll happen again. Hopefully not. You clean those up, you clean up those mistakes in some kind of critical situations, the Chiefs defense will be just fine. And who was quarterbacking that Rams team back in the crazy game of 2018 in Monday Night Football? 54 to 51. I think it was Jared Goff. Jared Goff. He was a Ram then. Now he’s a Lion. So, now it’s going to be golf against Mahomes again. This time though on the Sunday night football stage at GEA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. [Applause]

Voice of the Chiefs Mitch Holthus and senior team reporter Matt McMullen preview the upcoming Week 6 NFL matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Detroit Lions on Sunday Night Football.

TUNE IN to Week 6 👇
📺: SNF Chiefs vs Lions at 7:20 p.m. CT | NBC
📻: 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 #Shorts