Arrowhead Pride
Chiefs headlines for Friday, November 15
The Best NFL Bets for Week 11: Blessed by the Schedule Gods | The Ringer
Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bills (-2.5)
When the NFL schedule was released, the first game I searched for was this one. Just think about all the incredible drama these two quarterbacks have produced in the regular season alone—including last season, when Kadarius Toney lined up offsides and it seemed like the Chiefs season might be unraveling.
Here we are again, with Patrick Mahomes lined up as an underdog. My colleague Raheem Palmer jokes about this, and he’s 100 percent right. The sportsbooks don’t pay you extra money just because you bet against Mahomes and win. You don’t have to do it. And honestly, what’s the edge at this point anyway?
The market is well aware that the Chiefs are remarkably lucky to have a 9-0 record and are closer to a 6-3 team overall. That’s why the market is pricing the 8-2 Bills as a slight home favorite. The market will probably never get to -3 because books are aware that that would lead to an avalanche of Chiefs bets from sharp bettors, so expect it to sit between Bills -1.5 and Bills -2.5 all week long.
Can the Chiefs go undefeated? How they’re winning, what’s next | ESPN
Even the 2007 Patriots had their moments. They trailed 20-10 with eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter against the Colts before leading back-to-back touchdown drives to get to 9-0. When they needed another fourth-quarter comeback to beat A.J. Feeley and the Eagles as 24.5-point underdogs, The New York Times headline said: “Patriots Are Unbeaten but Don’t Look Unbeatable.” The next week, New England needed multiple controversial calls and a winning touchdown with 44 seconds left to beat a 4-7 Ravens team. The Patriots finished December with a game against the Jets that was within one score until the final few minutes, then went down 28-16 in Week 17 against a Giants team with nothing to play for before a furious comeback got them to 16-0.
I’d still say the Chiefs have been less dominant than the 2007 Patriots, of course, because we’ve rarely seen them pull away from opponents the way dominant teams usually do. But it’s also true that we have rose-colored memories of the past. Unless you’re a Ravens fan, you probably think about that Patriots team dropping 40- and 50-point games on overmatched opposition during the regular season, not their close calls. If you were lucky enough to see the 1972 Dolphins play, you probably weren’t thinking too much about their strength of schedule. If the Chiefs make a serious run at 17-0, nobody’s going to look back in two decades and say they were barely scraping by each week, even if it feels like that’s true now.
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