Patriots Got Only Break They Needed to Secure No. 1 Seed as Cakewalk Schedule Continues
By Jerry Trotta
The Kansas City Chiefs had one job heading into Sunday Night Football versus the Indianapolis Colts in front of their home crowd at Arrowhead Stadium: win to keep the pressure on the New England Patriots in the race for the No.1 seed in the AFC.
Well, Andy Reid's squad let Tom Brady and Co. off with a significant break, as the Colts downed KC in stunning fashion 19-13.
This might not seem like a big deal at this stage in the NFL season, but New England only needed one break given their cupcake of a schedule, and the Chiefs handed it to them on a platter, despite a profusion of narratives working in their favor on SNF. With so few opportunities for an actual living, breathing Patriots loss on the horizon, KC was basically required to cover every home game with an over-seven-point line. This could not happen.
Final: Colts 19, Chiefs 13.
— Zak Keefer (@zkeefer) October 7, 2019
A game no one picked them to win, two defensive stars hurt, some horrendously bad calls, against the best QB in the world – that, right there, is the most impressive win of the Frank Reich era.
Care to guess who the Patriots play in the next three weeks? The Giants, Jets, and Browns. That's three more wins to improve to 8-0, if you ask us.
Their schedule does, however, beef up in November and the first week of December, with tilts against the likes of the Ravens, Eagles, Cowboys (at home), Texans, and Chiefs (at home).
To close out the season, New England faces off against the woeful Bengals, overachieving Bills, and pathetic Dolphins. It's almost as if the NFL wants them to boast the easiest path to the Super Bowl.
In four games, the #Chiefs have handed four different NFL teams their first loss of the season.
— Josh Chavis (@JoshChavis65) September 30, 2019
Meanwhile, the Patriots continue to dominate their schedule consisting entirely of NCAA Division II opponents.
Could the Pats drop a game or two during the aforementioned gauntlet? Absolutely, but that's not necessarily the point here.
The Chiefs were expected to defeat Indy on Sunday. Now, KC, with a hobbled Patrick Mahomes, has even less of a margin for error, and we have 12 weeks of football left to play. This was supposed to be one of the easy ones.
If New England's dominance over the last 20 or so years has taught us anything, it's that a loss like this by the Chiefs in Week 5 will absolutely prove to work markedly in their favor down the stretch.