Kansas City Chiefs vs Denver Broncos: Did Elway finally struck gold?

Excitement in Denver

John Elway's front-office career was tainted by numerous wasted first-round picks, that he spent on incompetent QB prospects. In response to criticism, he once said that he's going to keep firing away until he finds the right one. And from what we've seen last week, he did just that in this year's NFL draft, when he selected Drew Lock out of Missouri in the second round. Lock was decent in his debut vs LA Chargers, but the coaching staff was protecting him with some vanilla playcalling, during which he only threw for 4.8 yards per attempt. They let him loose in Houston, ramping that number up to 11.4, completing 81.5% of his passes for 309 total yards, adding three touchdowns and only one interception. And those numbers could be even higher if they wouldn't have the 31-3 lead at the halftime and naturally opted for more run-oriented play call in the second half.

With Denver at 5-8, they got nothing to lose here. I believe that they are going to use the rest of these games to give some more experience to their rookie QB and give him an opportunity to find some chemistry with his teammates on the offense. There is some exciting talent there with Noah Fant, who scorched Texans defense for 114 yards last week and Cortland Sutton, who is having a breakout year. Broncos season is over, but they are trying to put some pieces together and hit the ground running in 2020, which is obviously very exciting for their fanbase.

Mahomes hand

Chiefs are coming off a huge win in Foxborough last week. And we're not talking only about the prestige of beating Patriots on their home field, that was also a huge win in the race for the 1st round bye in the playoffs. Chiefs are still a win behind the Pats for that 2nd seed spot in the AFC, but by holding an H2H edge, they've put a lot of pressure on New England to win it out and defend that lead.

Only negative from last week was the injury of Patrick Mahomes, who injured his hand. It was very swollen at the beginning of the week, but the Chiefs listed him as a full participant in the practices from Wednesday. There were rumors that he couldn't grip the ball properly earlier this week and with weather forecast showing predicting some snow during the game, that might become a big factor in this game.

Chiefs vs Broncos best bet

Looking at the traditional markets, I couldn't really make up my mind about anything. Lock did look very good in his first two starts, but he might come crashing back to earth in this one, playing against a very good secondary and in difficult weather. That and Mahomes injury prevented me from going over the total, but can't bet under either because we have two gunslingers on our hands and snow doesn't really affect the passing game as much as rain or wind, if it's not coming down really heavy.

But from watching many snow games, I know it affects the kicking quite a bit. Kickers are pretty almost like robots. That snap, hold, kick procedure is very automatic and slightest things can throw them off. Denver's kicker Brandon McManus is more of a big leg kicker, then someone that is 100% reliable from inside 45 yards lets say. His ball rarely flies in a straight line and is more similar to a knuckleball. I believe that makes him more vulnerable to missing kicks in conditions like these. Also, Denver's offense might hit a road bump in this game and not look as good as in some previous ones, which will give him less opportunities to actually kick.

I'm disappointed that nobody hung up Noah Fant's line. It might be inflated because of a big game last week, while in reality, he has been a boom or bust type of receiver so far. Going against Mathieu, Sorensen and a very exciting rookie Thornhill, he could have a slow game this time around.