NFL Betting Free Picks: Kansas City Chiefs at Denver Broncos

Added on Nov 09, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

NFL betting this weekend features an AFC West matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos. KC is the most improved team in the NFL and currently leads the division with a 5-3 record. Denver is one of the bigger disappointments in the league at 2-6 and are in last place.

Kansas City Chiefs at Denver Broncos
November 14, 2010 1:05 PM Pacific

The first place Kansas City Chiefs. The last place Denver Broncos. Those are unfamiliar terms to get used to throwing around, but both teams are as legitimately as good–or bad–as their rankings imply. I was never sold on Todd Haley, but he’s now on a short list for ‘coach of the year’. He’s rebuilt the Chiefs’ personnel from the ground up and its starting to pay dividends. They still need some more skill position players and an upgrade at the quarterback position, but they’ve become a tough, physical team that in no way resembles the team that won a total of 10 games in the previous three seasons.

Kansas City has the best per game rushing offense in the NFL, averaging 179.6 yards per game on the ground. That could be very significant here as the Broncos have the #31 ranked rushing defense in the NFL. More importantly, we think the Chiefs are the mentally tougher and better coached team. They’re off a tough OT loss at Oakland but Denver hasn’t been an intimidating environment for opposing teams in recent years. The Broncos are 5-15 ATS since 2008 and have only covered 5 of their last 18 games overall. We look for KC to bounce back strong off the loss to the Raiders. In theory, a team coming off a bye week would give us pause, but we don’t think that the Broncos have the coaching, character or talent to make the concept work. Chiefs are a young team still learning to play well away from home, but this looks like a spot they can take the outright win and at this price that’s all we need them to do.

Bet Kansas City Chiefs -1 over Denver Broncos