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KANSAS CITY CHIEFS (1-4) vs. INDIANAPOLIS COLTS (0-4)
When: Sunday, October 9, 1:00 PM ET
Where: Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Indiana
Broadcast: CBS
Spread: Colts -1 ½
Moneyline: Chiefs +110, Colts -130
Total: 35.5 points
Two teams that won their divisions last season will look to show signs of improvement when the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Indianapolis Colts in a battle of the battered bruised and brutal. The Chiefs are a shell of the team that surprised the league last season with Jamaal Charles, Eric Berry and Tony Moeaki all out for the season. Indianapolis is not immune to the injury bug either – Peyton Manning and defensive standouts Eric Foster, Gary Brackett and Melvin Bullitt have all been lost for the season.
Kansas City will be looking to build on their first win of the season – a 22-17 win against Minnesota in Week 4. The team has been awful this year on both sides of the ball and are lucky to have registered one win. A matchup against another underwhelming and banged up team could certainly serve as their second and perhaps last win of the 2011 season.
Offensively, the Chiefs look like they are going to have to depend on Matt Cassel and the passing game for success as scary as that sounds. Since Jamaal Charles went down, lead back Thomas Jones has looked terrible and has averaged only 2.8 yards per carry (a total of 11 yards on the season). Dexter McAlister has been better but he is obviously not the answer. It is clear that the Chiefs can all but rule out the prospect of running their way to victory.
That leaves Matt Cassel to shoulder the load. He has completed 64.9% of his passes this season, has averaged 172 yards passing per game, and has four touchdowns and five interceptions so far. Ugly numbers to depend on don’t you think?
Defensively, the Chiefs haven’t been much better. They rank last with 31.5 points allowed per game and they are 26th versus the run allowing 130 yards per game. Overall, the Chiefs give up 372.8 yards per game.
Indianapolis has looked better in the last two games although that is not saying much! They hung with Pittsburgh and they gave Tampa Bay quite a scare on Monday night. The offense is banged up and the defense has been decimated by injury.
The Colts will go with Curtis Painter at quarterback on Sunday. He has passed for 314 yards and two touchdowns this season including a 13-30, 281 yards, two touchdown effort on Monday. One thing we can say is that he goes to his arsenal of weapons often – not a bad plan when he has Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark and Pierre Garcon in the fold. Joseph Addai looks better so far this season and will be a tremendous asset to the largely untested Painter.
Despite the optimism in Indianapolis, the Colts are 30th in total offense with 270 yards per game, 29th in scoring with 15.8 points per game and 28th in rushing with 83 yards per game.
On defense, Indianapolis has been a disaster. They are 25th in the NFL in total yards against (390.3) and are 28th against the run (133 yards per game). This unit gave up 466 yards last week against Tampa including 192 yards on the ground.
Betting Outlook: The Kansas City Chiefs are 2-8 ATS in their last 10 games against the AFC and versus Indianapolis. However, the Chiefs are 9-4 ATS as a road underdog.
The Indianapolis Colts have won nine of their last 10 games against Kansas City but are just 2-6 ATS in their last eight games at home.
The Indianapolis Colts deserve a win! Seriously! They hung with two very tough teams and came out on the short end two weeks in a row. I think they get their first win on Sunday against a totally underwhelming Chiefs team. Take the Colts to prevail in a game between two teams that will most certainly be in the race for Andrew Luck!
Pick: Indianapolis Colts -1 ½
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