FANTASY FOOTBALL THURSDAY NIGHT BEAST BAD COACHING LIONS @ CHIEFS
FANTASY FOOTBALL THURSDAY NIGHT BEAST
(BAD COACHING)
LIONS @ CHIEFS
By Muntradamus
BEAST DOME NATION.
The worst thing a coach can do, is rest his starters the Week before the playoffs even if the team has already clinched. We have seen team after team after team lose in the playoffs after going with this strategy. Now why am I bringing this up when we have not even had the ring ceremony to kick off this game?
The answer to that is because the Lions of all teams, decided that they did not need to play their starters all preseason. While a team like the Chiefs who won the Super Bowl last year, and are easily the greatest team of the last half-decade, still played Mahomes and the starters all three preseason games.
With no game-time experience, does Dan Campbell really expect his starters to go into one of the toughest places to play, on Ring Night, to actually have success? Luckily for the Lions, they have some of the biggest breaks a team can have when going up against the Chiefs. No Chris Jones, no Travis Kelce.
The Lions are going to try to pound that rock as much as they can. If the Chiefs cannot stop the run, the Lions can keep Mahomes off the field. Expect pound after pound, and short pass to St. Brown after short pass to St. Brown. The Lions should be effective in moving the ball as this Chiefs defense is only a fraction of what they could be if they had Chris Jones. If the running game is effective, which it should be with the Lions owning one of the best O-Lines in the game, then things will get wild for the Chiefs D. Wild in the way where they look like a HS Football Defense.
It was one thing when Patrick Mahomes lost Tyreek Hill, it is another thing if he losses Travis Kelce as well. At least for Week 1, Mahomes will have to prove to the world that he does not need a star target in order to be a great QB. Something he has never had to prove before, but something we all believe is to be true of the future Hall of Famer. In fact, Mahomes could retire today and probably still make it into the Hall of Fame.
The Lions do own an underrated defense that did get better this off-season. Drafting Jack Campbell in the 1st Round, bringing in CJ Gardner-Johnson from the Eagles, Cameron Sutton from the Steelers and Emmanuel Moseley from the 49ers. Mahomes does not have as easy of a challenge as many would think.
Expect Mahomes to be smart with every pass he makes as he does not care who the target is, he is going to throw to the weak spots that the Lions defense is showing him. This will be a great practice test for Mahomes to show how great he is. The Lions D is a new secondary, and a new secondary is not ready for a vet like Mahomes. Running the ball will not be as easy as many would think, and there is an outside chance Clyde Edwards-Helaire gets one more chance to show he can be a RB on this roster. It will eventually be the Pacheco/McKinnon show like it was a year ago, but potentially not on opening night.
The difference maker in this game is the Lions getting off to a hot start, or a cold start. With no preseason action, to expect this Lions team to come out of the gate scoring points is a very hard expectation. Even if Mahomes struggles to find anything early on, Goff and the Lions offense may not be ready to take advantage out of the gate. Lions offense can finally get it going around halftime, and by that point the Chiefs will have enough to hold onto their edge through the end of the game.
*WOULD NOT BET ON THIS GAME*