Packers Chiefs Line


Written by -

The Green Bay Packers will look to stay unbeaten when they go on the road to face the struggling Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. The Packers improved to 13-0 with an easy 46-16 win over the Raiders, while the Chiefs got rolled by the Jets 37-10 for their fifth loss in six games. While the Packers attempt to finish 16-0 is a big time story, the Chiefs will take away some of that attention with their recent firing of head coach Todd Haley.

Taking a look at the week 15 spreads, oddsmakers currently have the Packers favored by 13.5-points over the Chiefs with the total set at 46.5 points.

Green Bay Packers:

This will be the Packers final road game of the season, as they finish up the regular season with home games against the Bears and Lions. With a win this week Green Bay can lock up the No. 1 seed in the NFC. After getting put to the test in a 38-35 win at New York (Giants) in week 13, it took the Packers less than a half of football to lock up their win against the Raiders. Green Bay had 31-0 lead with just over seven minutes to play in the second quarter, allowing them to coast in the second half.

Aaron Rodgers threw for 281 yards and two touchdowns on 17 of 30 passing, despite being pulled in the third quarter for backup Matt Flynn.He tied Brett Farve’s franchise record of 39 touchdown passes in a single season.

The big concern for Rodgers and the Packers is the health of wide out Greg Jennings, who was forced to leave Sunday’s game with a knee injury. The injury will likely cost Jennings the rest of the regular season, but the Packers are hopeful that he will be able to return by the playoffs.

The Packers faced the Raiders without starting running back James Starks, but finished up with 136 yards as a team thanks to a big game from Ryan Grant, who needed just 10 carries to pile on 85 yards and two scores. Expect to see more and more of the ground game as the season winds down.

Rodgers and company will take on a stingy Kansas City pass defense that comes in 10th in yards allowed at 209.3, but this isn’t any ordinary passing attack.  I look for Rodgers and company to jump all over the Chiefs in this one.

Kansas City Chiefs:

It will be interesting to see how the Chiefs respond after losing their head coach. Haley was a big part in the Chiefs winning the AFC West in 2010, but appears to be the scapegoat from a miserable 2011 season. It’s hard to put a lot of the blame on Haley, as the Chiefs suffered a number of key injuries. They loss star running back Jamaal Charles, starting quarterback Matt Cassel, emerging tight end Tony Moeaki, and their best defensive player in Eric Berry.

There’s no arguing that the Chiefs have played pretty bad of late. Offensively this team has been downright awful the last six weeks. Kansas City hasn’t score more than 10 points since a 23-20 win over San Diego back in week 8. They have just three offensive touchdowns during that stretch.

Backup quarterback Tyler Palko hasn’t looked good at all since taking over for the injured Cassel. Last week against the Jets, he completed just 16 of 32 attempts for 195 yards. Opposing defenses aren’t worried at all when Palko drops back to pass, which has allowed teams to put extra focus on stopping the run. The Chiefs had just 65 rushing yards on 21 attempts against New York.

While the Chiefs figure to have another tough day running the ball against a Green Bay defense that allows just 106 yard a game on the ground, Palko and the passing attack will take on a Green Bay secondary that ranks 31st in yards allowed (288.5). Even with the Packers poor performances against the pass this season, it’s hard to see the Chiefs offense finding life this week. I would almost give Palko a better chance of throwing a interception for a touchdown than finding one of his receivers for a score.

Betting Trends:

Green Bay is 10-2 ATS in non-conference games over the last 3 seasons.

Kansas City is 6-0 ATS after a 2 game road trip over the last 3 seasons.

Subscribe to the BetFirms RSS Feed
Comments

Got something to say?