AL KECK’S – BUCS – CHIEFS PREVIEW

The Buccaneers are hoping timing is everything.

They are in Kansas City taking on the NFL’s only undefeated team, and it’s a team that even its head coach says hasn’t played anywhere near its best football.

In particular, the brightest of stars, Patrick Mahomes. Looking at his stats, you have to feel it is a typo. Mahomes has eight touchdowns and nine interceptions. He’s averaging 235 yards per game.

Yet, he’s led the Chiefs to the biggest stat of all: a 7-0 record.

Let’s put Mahomes numbers into perspective. Baker Mayfield is among the NFL’s leaders with 21 touchdowns and nine picks. Baker is also passing for 38 yards more per game.

Buccaneer fans before you start beating the drum for a Tampa Bay victory, the Chiefs are favored by 8-and-a-half points. The guys in Vegas know better than anybody, that the Chiefs have been winning their games with defense.

They also know the Bucs are missing Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Now Bucky Irving isn’t 100 percent. Irving has been crucial to the Buccaneers’ ground game that Mayfield will need even more without Evans and Godwin.

What Vegas understands more than anything: the Buccaneers defense is horrid.

The Buccaneers are giving up 387 yards per game. That’s 30th in the NFL and 30th out of 32 teams.

The Buccaneers defense has been tonic for quarterbacks. Rookie Bo Nix earned his first NFL victory, hitting 25 of 36 passes for 216 yards and a rushing touchdown. Denver won at Tampa Bay 26-7.

Kurt Cousins wasn’t living up to his big contract in Atlanta; until he played the Buccaneers twice. The result was eight touchdown passes and nearly 800 yards in two Atlanta wins over the Bucs. The Falcons now lead the NFC South at 5-3.

And Lamar Jackson looked like his MVPself with five touchdown passes in Baltimore’s 41-31 win at Raymond James.

The bottom line: even a so-called struggling Patrick Mahomes can get right after facing the Buccaneers. If Cousins can throw for eight touchdowns in two games against this defense, it is terrifying to think what Mahomes can do.

Granted, the Buccaneers handled Mahomes in their 31-9 Super Bowl victory in the 2020 season. Mahomes has matured. And that Buccaneer defense had Ndamukong Sun, Jason Pierre-Paul, and Shaq Barrett. This Buccaneer defense doesn’t carry that swag up front. And this Buccaneer defense chases instead of covers.

So, the Buccaneers will have the spotlight of Monday Night Football, but will the Chiefs show the football world all the things the Bucs don’t have?

Written By Al Keck