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Who Can Challenge The Chiefs?
Throughout the course of 12 weeks of the NFL Season, the back to back defending Champs are sitting at 10-1 and are once again favorites to be the first team to win three Super Bowls in a row. The Chiefs haven’t looked like a team ready to three-peat at times but they have continually found ways to win, having just taken their first loss in week 11 against the Bills. There have been teams that have given them trouble, like the 3-win Panthers on Sunday, making the Chiefs need a last second field goal to down them. As we look towards the playoffs, let’s also take a look at the five teams that are the biggest threat to the Chiefs’ dreams of a three-peat.
Jim Harbaugh takes on his brother tonight on Monday Night Football against the Ravens so that will go a long way in determining if five is a good spot for the Chargers. They come in with the best scoring defense in the NFL and Justin Herbert playing at a high level. They matchup well with the Chiefs as, out of all the teams on this list, they probably know the Chiefs the best, having played them twice each year within the division. Head Coach Jim Harbaugh is no stranger to big games and I believe he would have his team extremely motivated and ready to play if they meet in the playoffs.
Now I know people will argue saying, “they just lost to the two win browns, how can they beat the Chiefs?” Well I’ll tell you. Yes, the Steelers had a bad performance on Thursday night in Cleveland. But many factors went into that performance in my opinion. Playing in a second half blizzard surely didn’t help but that’s not what lost them that game. The Steelers still have a very good defense and thrive in mucking games up so that they’re ugly, which is what alot of the Chiefs wins have been like also. I think they matchup well with how the Chiefs are playing this year. And we’ll find out on Christmas just how close they are to the Chiefs level when they play each other in Pittsburgh.
I could honestly just write Saquon Barkley here as the reason why they could beat the Chiefs. But that would be doing a disservice to QB Jalen Hurts. For as well as Saquon has been playing, Jalen Hurts has been outstanding as of late. He struggled a bit with turnovers early in the year but has done a nice job in recent weeks as the Eagles have cruised to a seven game win streak after their win last night against the Rams in LA. Saquon should legitimately be in MVP conversations. He has 1,392 yards rushing so far this year, including a monster game against the Rams in which he rumbled for a staggering 255 yards and 2 TDs. He’s been an absolute revelation for this Eagles offense and will be tough for anyone to slow down, let alone the Chiefs.
You’re probably wondering why the Bills are at number 2. I mean, they did just beat the Chiefs after all. Yes they did beat the Chiefs, however, Josh allen is 4-1 in the regular season against the Chiefs, but 0-3 when it matters most in the playoffs. Josh Allen has indeed been having a tremendous year and may end up being the MVP this year, but for as good as I believe Josh Allen and the Bills are, I can’t put them at number one because they haven’t been able to close the deal in the playoffs. Until they do that, they are number two.
The Lions have been simply the best team in the NFL this year to this point. Apart from the early season loss to the Bucs, they have steamrolled just about every team they have played this year. The offense has been borderline unstoppable and the defense has been terrific despite significant losses like DE Aidan Hutchinson due to a torn acl, and LB Alex Anzalone with a broken arm. They haven’t missed a beat and honestly this is the only team on this list that not only do I believe would beat the Chiefs, I don’t think the game would be very close. Never in their history have they had a team in Detroit as good as this current one and it will be a highly disappointing season if they don’t at least make it to the big game. If it happens to be the Chiefs, I would have the Lions winning by at least two touchdowns.
So there you have it. Five teams I believe could prevent the three-peat this year. I do think two teams on this list will make the Super Bowl.. Those two teams are the Bills and Lions. That is my official Super Bowl matchup after all, but every team on this list could potentially knock off the Chiefs if they got the chance to face them in the postseason.
