Week 9 of the NFL 2024 season concludes with the Monday Night Football which takes us to the home of the only unbeaten team in the league as the champions Kansas City Chiefs welcome the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to Arrowhead Stadium.
The Chiefs begin the night 7-0 for the season and are already only a couple of wins from assuring themselves on a playoff spot in the AFC based on recent history while Tampa Bay are 4-4 for their campaign and need to go on a winning run.
Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs might only be a couple of wins away from securing themselves a playoff berth but they will have their sights set a lot higher than that. They will be looking to nail down the AFC West as quickly as possible and then set about ensuring that they are the number one seeds going into the postseason. If they can do that then they will give themselves the best chance of defending the title once again. The positive is that they are 7-0 and haven’t really blown sides away in the fashion we know they can yet.
There is no doubt that the Chiefs are improving though. They have been much better after the bye week with their offense pushing 30 points in the last three games. That has largely where they have fallen down this term because in the main their defence has been going along fairly well. The Chiefs have this ability to control the clock with their running game but the thing that really stands out is how they always seem to have their best play down the stretch in the fourth quarter hence why they have won a lot of one score games recently.
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Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers began their season well but three defeats in their last four matches, including a couple against the Atlanta Falcons, have left them chasing the pace in the NFC South and after the Falcons have already won this week, the Bucs really need to answer in kind. There is still a playoff spot to be had as a wildcard for them but it looks like the NFC North might take a couple of those spots so it isn’t guaranteed that there is a route in without winning the division.
If there is a positive for the Buccaneers then it comes in the fact that they don’t need to delve too deep to see where they have been going wrong. In the last four matches, of which they have lost three, they have conceded 36, 27, 41 and 31 points and those totals are only going to put untold pressure on the offense to deliver. To be fair to that side of the ball, they have put up 30 points or more in three of those games and 26 in the other but it hasn’t got them over the line too often.
Betting
This feels like a night where the Kansas City Chiefs are going to be hard to beat. They haven’t been beaten yet this season and look to be finding their groove with their offense now functioning after dealing with the injuries that they had earlier in the campaign and the Buccaneers head to Kansas City without their two leading receivers and with a defence which is leaking more points than you could scarcely believe.
The spread is a little high for me though on a Monday night. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chiefs do win this by double figures but the potential for a backdoor cover is too much for me to get involved but if the game state of a comfortable Chiefs win does play out then I think Kareem Hunt will be a big player. He is seeing plenty of carries in recent times and this Bucs defence will surely be looking to keep tabs on Travis Kelce and the passing game more than the run game. The Chiefs will use Hunt to take the pressure off of that passing game but also to control the clock late on so a 64.5 rushing yards line, which he covered in his first three games on his return to the Chiefs and fell 5.5 yards short of it last week, feels low. That was against a Las Vegas defence which isn’t too bad up the middle last week. The Bucs are bad and Hunt should capitalise throughout this game.
Tips
Back K.Hunt – Over 64.5 rushing yards for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
