The traditional Monday Night Football comes in the form of a double header this week after the match between the Kansas City Chiefs and the New England Patriots was put back a day after the Patriots had some positive Covid-19 tests.
That is the first game of the double header of sorts as Arrowhead Stadium will be the centre of attention as two Super Bowl winners collide in a match that jumped off the page for this round of games when the schedule was announced.
Kansas City Chiefs
It wasn’t always perfect in the opening two matches of the season but the Kansas City Chiefs won them both and then kept their undefeated start alive when they went to Baltimore last week and came away with the win in what many believe was a rehearsal for the AFC Championship game at the end of the season. There is an argument to be made that the Ravens didn’t turn up in that match but you could see just how much the Chiefs are feared by the fact Baltimore diverted from their usual strategy almost immediately.
The Chiefs stifled much of the offensive play of the Ravens last week and that bodes really well because they are so balanced on offense that even if a team tries to shut down one facet of their offensive play they can get it done through other ways. Attempting to stop this lot from playing is one thing but actually containing Patrick Mahomes and friends is quite another. If the Chiefs get in front early here they could put another market down.
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New England Patriots
Thankfully there were no other positive tests recorded in the New England Patriots’ camp and they are able to play this match with just Cam Newton missing from those who originally were going to start. Brian Hoyer will be the man assigned with the task of playing quarterback in this fixture and on the face of it he seems up against it. That might not be the case though as we should expect a lot of running the ball from the Patriots in this game for two reasons.
The first one would be that they are sixth best in running the ball this season and the obvious other reason is that while they are running the ball the clock will be coming down quite quickly, limiting the time their defence has to keep Patrick Mahomes under control for. In saying that, their defence ranks fourth in the league so far this season after being the best in it last term so they shouldn’t fear being on the field, although that balance of the Chiefs making controlling them difficult.
Betting
I don’t think this will be the high scoring shootout that many expect it to be but at the same time I don’t really want to back the under because if the Kansas City Chiefs run up a head of steam they can pile up the points pretty quickly it has to be said. If the line was over 50 then I might have got involved on the under but just because Cam Newton is out doesn’t necessarily mean the Patriots will struggle on offense. Either way it is a player prop that interests me more.
The one thing we know about the New England Patriots is that they will take away the biggest threat in the Kansas City Chiefs offense and that is the deep ball to Tyreek Hill or Sammy Watkins therefore I think the Chiefs will be forced to play short ball offense which brings running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire into the game and he has a receiving line of over 28.5 yards which he could well obliterate here. He never caught a pass against the Texans in week one but rushed for plenty however his catching ability has come to the fore recently. Against the Chargers he caught for 32 yards from six passes and 70 yards off five passes in Baltimore last week. He is getting used in the passing game regularly at the minute and that trend should continue. I’ll take the over on that line.
Tips
Back C.Edwards-Helaire – Over 28.5 receiving yards for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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