Kansas City And Half Way Home » Brats & Beer

November 2, 2007
posted under: Chiefs, Packers, Pre-game

The midpoint of the season is here and the Green Bay Packers are looking to go to 7-1 with a road win over the Chiefs this Sunday. Am I freakin’ dreaming here or what?

This has certainly been one of the most unbelievable Packer seasons that I can remember. Good things were in the offing at the start of this campaign, but I for sure did not see Green Bay being this far in front at this stage of the game. The fear now, of course, is the big let down. The team is riding high and feeling invincible and they let someone creep in and ruin the party.

Luckily, it doesn’t look like coach McCarthy or Brett Favre is going to let that happen. Every news conference it seems is peppered with qualifiers and phrases like “we’re still improving” and “this is still a young team,” so I don’t think anyone in that locker room is getting too cocky even with the success that they’ve had.

Looming in their sights this week is the 4-3 Kansas City Chiefs, the one team in the NFL that Brett Favre has never beaten. In fact the Packers have had a rough go of it against KC over the past almost 20 years: They’ve lost five straight meetings since 1989, with two of those losses coming at Arrowhead Stadium.

The Chiefs appear to have one of the better defenses in the league, ranked sixth in points allowed and 11th in yards given up. In seven games no one has scored more than 20 points against them. On the other side of the ball, however, Kansas City is scoring just 14 points a game.

This should be a good test of whether or not what we saw from the running game was for real or if it was the Broncos poor defense. Ryan Grant is getting his first go as a starter and he’ll have his work cut out for him getting past the likes of Napoleon Harris and Donnie Edwards. Favre and his receivers will have to contend with veteran corners Ty Law and Patrick Surtain; Jared Allen leads the Chiefs with eight sacks.

One thing that’s going to be key to the Packers success is red zone efficiency. Green Bay has struggled close to the goal line all season, scoring just 10 touchdowns on 22 red zone possessions. Without Bubba Franks in the lineup for a second week, someone needs to step up and make some plays to finish these drives. (No more marching for 98 yards with just three points to show for it, please.)

I’m afraid this one is going to come down to the defense once again making plays and creating opportunities for Brett Favre to work his magic. Damon Huard is not the brightest lightbulb in the bunch and has been sacked 18 times, so if the front four can keep the pressure on him the Packers should be able to keep KC bottled up.

Aaron at Cheesehead TV makes a good observation, though, that once again the Packers defense is facing a formidable tight end in Tony Gonzalez, who leads the Chiefs with 506 yards receiving. All season they’ve seemed to either ignore the TE in the first half (Antonio Gates) or Brady Poppinga gets exposed (Chris Cooley), so maybe this week Bob Sanders will try something a little different like trying to shut down Gonzalez from the start.

This is a game the Packers certainly can win and I think they will. In classic Green Bay fashion, though, this one will probably go right down to the wire once again so be prepared for another 60-minute white knuckle ride.