Right now I don’t think you can get any more opposite in terms of fortune than the Chiefs and the Patriots.  The Chiefs must have defaced the idol of some football god, because they’ve been snakebitten all season long.  I suppose last year’s magical playoff ride out of nowhere had to be paid for and the football gods came a calling for their cut this year.  The team lost promising young TE Tony Moeaki before the season began, Jonathan Baldwin broke his hand on Thomas Jones’ 2 yard per carry average, Eric Berry and Jamaal Charles succumbed to injury before the third week of the season, and Matt Cassel broke his hand this past week.  Have we missed anything?  Oh yes, Dwayne Bowe’s contract is up after this year and if he was a smart man, he’d get out of Dodge before football karma gets him too.

The Patriots on the other hand have been mostly charmed, getting by with an offense that lacks any type of a deep threat to blow the top off the coverage, nor a defense that can stop anybody on the ground or in the air.  Generally speaking, that type of combo will get you exposed, as is being proved by the Buffalo Bills as of late.  Luckily for the Pats, they have a football god of their own, Bill Belichick, who knows how to squeeze more talent out of a bunch of would-be turnips as any coach has ever been able to do.  Seriously, if any one of these guys ever left the Patriots, would any of them be as good as they are in this system?  Tom Brady probably would be, Rob Gronkowski probably would be, but would anyone else?  Would the human slot machine Wes Welker be anywhere near what he is in the Patriots system in any other system?  Luckily for his fantasy owners, we probably will never have to worry about that, as he’ll be Brady’s BFF till the end of days with the Patriots.

Speaking of the Patriots offense, they’ve been able to maintain a huge scoring advantage over most every team in the league, sporting almost 29 points per game, so it’s not like they’re missing a deep threat really.  With Gronk and Aaron Hernandez down the seams and Welker working the edges and underneath routes, the Patriots can move the ball at will against most teams, especially one as devoid of defensive talent as the Chiefs.  Kansas City is in a lot of trouble in this game, as they don’t have the defense that has any hope of slowing down Brady, and with Tyler Palko taking the snaps for the injured Cassel, there’s not a lot of hope that they can remotely keep up if the game turns into a shootout; which you don’t want to do with Brady firing bullets and your team firing blanks.
If the Chiefs still had Jamaal Charles, that at least would give them hope of running the ball to keep Brady and company off the field, while taking the pressure off the passing game.  As of now the combo of Jackie Battle, Jones, and Dexter McCluster just don’t scare anybody, so the Patriots can sell out as much as possible to help their moribund secondary.  With Palko getting his first NFL start, he probably will not be able to exploit the Patriots’ greatest weakness, which is their pass defense.  Dwayne Bowe is probably still a good start here, but he probably would have had even better numbers if Cassel were able to play against his old team.

Good Start:  WR Dwayne Bowe, QB Tom Brady, WR Wes Welker, WR Deion Branch, TE Rob Gronkowski, TE Aaron Hernandez

Middle of the Road:  QB Tyler Palko, RB Jackie Battle, WR Steve Breaston, WR Jonathan Baldwin, RB Benjarvis Green-Ellis

Bad Start:  RB Thomas Jones, RB Dexter McCluster, RB Danny Woodhead, WR Chad Ochocinco

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