Five questions with Chiefs Wire prior to Divisional Round
The Jacksonville Jaguars travel to Kansas City Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium to face them. They have a chance of winning the AFC Championship.
It’s a rematch of a November meeting when the Chiefs jumped out to an early lead and cruised to a 27-17 win.
What has changed that Jaguars can take advantage of? Charles Goldman was our interviewee. Chiefs Wire You will be asked five questions about Chiefs in advance of the Divisional round matchup.
Are there concerns at this stage about the Chiefs becoming rusty after a week? Or is this team too battle-trained for this?
I wouldn’t necessarily say the team is too battle-tested to be a little rusty as they have many new pieces this year. That said, they’ve got the veteran leaders to shepherd those guys along. Andy Reid has the bye weeks down to a science. He is able to balance everything so they are fresh and prepared. He can motivate men to put in extra effort when they’re away from the building. He is a natural leader when it comes to getting guys back into the building. He does an excellent job of delegating to his assistant coaches game-planning tasks and opponent preparation during the bye week. I’d be very surprised if they came out looking flat.
What would your game plan look like if you were given the task of devising a strategy to defeat the Chiefs?
Isolate the Chiefs’ linebackers in coverage using personnel groupings and have at it. It’s the biggest weakness this team has and really only one team (the Bengals) consistently attacked it in a game this season. Tight ends, running backs, receivers – if you can get them matched up in coverage with Nick Bolton, Darius Harris or Leo Chenal, K.C. probably won’t have a good time.
Which team would you favor if it snows on Saturday as some forecasts predict?
A quick google search told me that Jacksonville hasn’t seen snow in 33 years. Frankly, I’m jealous. Yeah, I feel like it’d pretty clearly favor Kansas City in this scenario. Patrick Mahomes is a snow-game guy. He enjoys that kind of weather and has done an excellent job in throwing the ball in it. It doesn’t hurt that Andy Reid makes an effort to practice in the elements when he gets a chance during training camp and even sometimes during the regular season.
Patrick Mahomes can be difficult to sack. In Week 10, the Jaguars failed to do it. What is the weak point Jacksonville could exploit to make the match more interesting?
Honestly, I’m surprised the tackles held up as well as they did against Travon Walker and Josh Allen in Week 10. Andrew Wylie and Orlando Brown Jr. are the weakest links on the offensive line. They struggle with speed and are often the ones who fall behind. Patrick Mahomes, however, helps to make up for a lot of the deficiencies at the tackle position. He can feel the pressure and is capable of extending plays or escaping from the pocket when required.
What is your Saturday score prediction?
I took Chiefs 34, Jaguars 23 in my USA TODAY Sports Weekly prediction and I’m sticking with that. I think that it’ll be a close game early on, but with each passing quarter, Kansas City will pull slightly further away. I expect Trevor Lawrence and the Jags receivers to challenge the Chiefs’ secondary, but adding Frank Clark to a pass rush that already thrived in Week 10 will be the difference-maker for the Chiefs. He only needs two sacks to rank third in NFL history for postseason sacks.