Big Blue View
How does the Big Blue View staff see Sunday’s New York Giants-Kansas City Chiefs game? Let’s look at our staff picks for Week 3 of the NFL season and find out.
I really want to pick the Giants to get off the schneid and beat Kansas City on Sunday night. The Chiefs have been in decline the last couple of years even though they keep getting to the Super Bowl thanks to the superhuman Patrick Mahomes. They never satisfactorily replaced Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce is starting to show his age, and the offensive line is not what it used to be. (The defense however has gotten stronger over the years.) I just can’t do it, though. The Giants got perhaps the best performance of Russell Wilson’s career last week yet still lost to Dallas because the defense couldn’t stop Dak Prescott when it mattered and didn’t even aggressively try to do so. There’s talent on the Giants’ defense, and if I were confident that Shane Bowen would come up with a clever scheme to limit Mahomes’ options and give the pass rush time to get to him the way the Eagles did in the last Super Bowl, I’d go for it. Bowen just hasn’t shown that, though. I do see Russell Wilson having another good week because he can handle Steve Spagnuolo’s blitzes…if the offensive line can limit the damage done by Chris Jones and George Karlaftis. I see this game being another high-scoring affair. And you don’t want to get into a high scoring game against Mahomes. Just ask Brian Daboll, who was hired by the Giants five days after Mahomes drove the Chiefs to a tying field goal in the final 13 seconds of their playoff game against the Bills and then won it in OT.
Prediction: Chiefs
Can I do it? Can I bring myself to pick the Giants over the Chiefs?
My rule is that I don’t pick the Giants until they prove that they can win a game — not just not-lose a game. But this week I said that I believe they’re close to putting it all together. They’ve played good defense through the first three quarters of each of the first two games, and finally found the endzone in the fourth quarter against the Cowboys. I couldn’t tell you whether this is the week the Giants click and play a complete game, but this might be the most vulnerable the Chiefs have looked since before Andy Reid got there.
There’s still plenty that worries me about this game: Andy Reid, Spags, Mahomes, Chris Jones, and (a diminished but still good) Travis Kelce. But I’m going to pick the Giants in an upset.
Prediction: Giants
Hey, did you hear about the 2007 Giants that started 0-2 and won the Super Bowl that year? The interesting through-line about that overused factoid is that the defensive coordinator for the Giants that day will be on the opposite...
