Although Pittsburgh showed us last week that this Chiefs team isn’t unstoppable, KC still holds the strongest claim to the title of best team in the league (at the moment). The Chiefs are favored by a mere 2.5 points here, and I think this is an overreaction to last week’s loss.
Make no mistake, Kansas City going down to Pittsburgh is a quality loss. As ridiculous as that term is in general, it applies here. Although Pittsburgh has had its struggles at times this season, they are a legitimate team. Pittsburgh has a top-10 offense and a top-5 defense by DVOA, per Football Outsiders. Oakland, on the other hand, hasn’t looked good by any measure. They’re a bottom-half offense and a bottom-5 defense by DVOA, per FO. Derek Carr hasn’t looked right all season and he’s already missed time with injury.
Kansas City was never going to go undefeated, so it’s a mistake to discount their talent due to one loss. Based on everything we’ve seen so far, I’ve got to think that they have this game in the bag. All they need is a 3-point win here and we saw what the Chiefs can do against a bad defense in the week 1 win against the Pats, when they put up 42.