The Kansas City Chiefs had been a winning and online NFL betting spread-covering machine up until they hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers, entering week 6 with a perfect 5-0 SU and ATS records. The Chiefs have gone, with their Thursday night loss to the Oakland Raiders (their second loss as a three-point or more favorite), 0-2 SU and ATS since. Some are attributing this state of affairs to safety Eric Berry’s season-ending Achilles heel injury, which apparently works like delayed-release tablet, only affecting Kansas City until a couple of weeks ago even though Berry was injured in the season opener against the Patriots.
Then again, maybe the Chiefs had yet to face an offense that would truly challenge, and presumably justify, Berry’s status as the highest-paid safety in the league. The Steelers gained 200 running yards, of which Le’Veon Bell took credit for 179, against Kansas City, while Derek Carr threw for 417 yards and three TDs on Thursday, as if to illustrate, and in separate installments, no less, the better to drive the point home, that neither the Chiefs’ pass nor run defense are up to snuff. Daniel Sorensen, Ron Parker, Eric Murray, Marcus Peters, Phillip Gaines and Terrance Mitchell, plus a healthy Justin Houston all seem to be less than the sum of their parts when it comes to replacing Berry, whose ability to force turnovers the Chiefs could really use right now – they have caused just three TOs in the last four games, and none against Oakland.
"To come down at the end like that…it’s not fun." ~ Alex Smith https://t.co/iFx4NUVj33
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) October 20, 2017
Not only has Kansas City, as a result of all of this tomfoolery, lost two straight games outright, but suffered back-to-back against-the-online NFL betting-spread losses for the first time in more than a year. The Chiefs’ offense and defense seem, like those of the Dallas Cowboys, to be at cross purposes, and a house divided against itself, as Honest Abe said, cannot stand. Kansas allowed, even in victory, the Texans 34 points, although they still managed to cover, but they weren’t so lucky against either Steelers or Raiders. “I don’t know what’s missing,” linebacker Derrick Johnson said. “It’s about making it happen. It’s about having the confidence we are a good defense and we can lean on that when the game is on the line on the last drive. Just make one play, one of us. We couldn’t make it.”
It’s not that Kansas’ defense failed to make plays; they actually made negative plays, if there is such a thing. Parker and Murray, for example, were each called for holding in the closing seconds, which in turn gave Oakland untimed downs, resulting in Michael Crabtree’s game-winning reception. In head coach Andy Reid’s worldview, a good offense is the best defense, or, as AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta puts it, “the Chiefs would have won their last two games if they simply scored more points (from Reid’s standpoint, that is),” which is all fine and dandy for those fans who bet on NFL games online and are also fond of the over, but KC’s recent online NFL betting record says otherwise.