The Kansas City Chiefs face the Colts in Week 2, and this looks like a very winnable game.
The Kansas City Chiefs had a supposedly tough matchup against the Denver Broncos in Week 1, but the Broncos didn’t exactly turn out to be all that. Now they have the Indianapolis Colts coming to town in Week 2, and there are plenty of signs that the Colts may not be capable of giving the Chiefs a fight.
Consider the Indy defense. According to a report from ESPN, the Colts are already “conceding a mistake” and changing defensive signal callers, shifting from safety Cam Bynum to linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither.
The original plan here was to have Bynum wearing the transmitter for the defense that allows him to translate instructions and signals into actual alignments. Per the report, Bynum was unable to handle this, as the Colts struggled to huddle up properly, make calls and set deep coverages.
That led to numerous instances where defenders were out of position, which is one reason the Baltimore Ravens ran roughshod on the Colts defense in their 41-23 win last Sunday. Per the report, there were also plays where the defense was barely lined up at all.
It’s tough to understate how ridiculous this is. Teams spend tons of time in training camp to get this sort of thing right, but for whatever reason it didn’t happen for the Colts.
The Chiefs will be just as organized as the Ravens were, as their 31-10 win over the Broncos showed. Their execution in the running game was close to flawless, as they opened holes for Kenneth Walker III to run inside, and Walker was able to take advantage of some poor Denver tackling to have a big debut.
But the Chiefs also have some chaos of their own to deal with in this game. Their passing game was sloppy initially, then competent in the second half. That’s fine for a Week 1 game with quarterback Patrick Mahomes returning from a long layoff, but it’s going to be an issue when the schedule stiffens up again and teams stack the box to stop Walker.
The big issue for the Chiefs is their receiving corps, which was expected to be a problem going in. Rashee Rice made a nice move on a short pass from Mahomes that resulted in a touchdown, but there was also a bad interception when Mahomes and Xavier Worthy weren’t on the same page on a deep route and an underthrow was picked off.
