The 11-3 Kansas City Chiefs will travel to Seattle to take on the 8-6 Seahawks in this week’s Sunday night matchup. Both teams are coming off losses last week which could impact the playoff picture. The Chiefs blew a 14 point 4th quarter lead against the Los Angeles Chargers losing 29-28 at home. They are now in a first-place tie with the Chargers atop the AFC West. The Chiefs hold the tiebreaker and can keep the # 1 seed in the AFC if they win out. The Seahawks lost on the road in overtime 26-23 to the San Francisco 49ers. The loss snapped a 4 game win streak and prevented them from clinching a playoff spot. They currently hold just a half game lead over the Minnesota Vikings for the wild card.
Kansas City outplayed the Chargers last week for 44 minutes only to give up 2 touchdowns in the final 4 minutes to lose by 1 point. Pat Mahomes finished with a passer rating of 110.3 as he completed 24 of 34 passes for 243 yards, 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. His favorite target was Travis Kelce who had 7 catches for 61 yards. The team gained just 60 rushing yards but Damien Williams had a nice game with 49 yards and 2 touchdowns on 10 carries. Their offense leads the league in several categories including points per game with 35.6 and yards per game with 427.3. Defensively, they sacked Philip Rivers 5 times and intercepted him twice. They allowed the Chargers to gain 5 yards per carry as they totaled 119 yards on 24 run plays. Over their last 4 games the Chiefs defense has allowed their opponents to average 34 points.
Russel Wilson finished with a passer rating of 117.3 and it wasn’t enough to beat the 49ers. He completed 23 of 31 passes for 237 yards, 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. His favorite target was Mike Davis who had 8 catches for 63 yards. Doug Baldwin also had a nice game with 77 yards and 2 touchdowns on just 4 catches. Defensively, the intercepted Nick Mullens once and sacked him 3 times. They allowed the 49ers to average 3.6 yards per run as they gained 94 yards on 26 carries. Four different 49ers receivers had catches that gained at least 20 yards. On the year, the Seahawks defense has allowed their opponents to score 20.9 points and gain 375.2 yards per game.
Seattle will have home field advantage and are 2.5 point underdogs. They have gone 8-4-2 against the spread this season including 4-1-1 at home. Kansas City has gone 8-5-1 against the spread including 5-1-1 on the road. The Seahawks enter as the team with more momentum as they have won 4 of their last 5 games while 2 of the Chiefs 3 losses on the year have come in their last 4 games. For Seattle, a loss means elimination and the fans at Century Link Field will do everything they can to make sure that doesn’t happen.
