Kansas City @ Jacksonville preview
TIAA Bank Field
Last Meeting ( Oct 7, 2018 ) Jacksonville 14, Kansas City 30
Reigning MVP Patrick Mahomes says the Kansas City Chiefs spent the offseason finding ways to make their offense run even more smoothly, and that’s a scary proposition for opposing defenses. Mahomes and the Chiefs will try to pick up where they left off last season when they open the 2019 campaign at the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
The Chiefs led the league in scoring (35.3 points per game) and total offense (425.6 yards) a year ago, and with most of their biggest weapons still in the arsenal, they’ve been able to add some new wrinkles to the playbook. “I’m definitely excited to be able to show all these plays we’ve been working on all through training camp and watch how they’re going to work in a game,” Mahomes told reporters. “That’s stuff we worked on all offseason - how we think we can exploit defenses and how we think we can go out there and have success based on stuff we did last year.” They’ll start with a strong challenge against a Jacksonville defense that ranked in the top five in the league in scoring defense (19.8 points per game) and total defense (311.4 yards). “It will be a great challenge for us,” Jaguars coach Doug Marrone told reporters. “They have a lot of talent on that side of the ball.”
TV: 1 p.m. ET, CBS. LINE: Kansas City -3.5. O/U: 51.5
ABOUT THE CHIEFS (2018: 12-4, TIED FOR FIRST IN AFC WEST): There’s plenty of hype for Kansas City’s offense with Mahomes back for his second full season as a starter after passing for 5,097 yards and 50 touchdowns a year ago. The Chiefs added running back LeSean McCoy to complement Damien Williams, who broke out last season after Kareem Hunt’s release, and Mahomes’ two favorite targets are back in dynamic receiver Tyreek Hill and tight end Travis Kelce. The defense got a bit of a facelift with the addition of pass rusher Frank Clark and safety Tyrann Mathieu.
ABOUT THE JAGUARS (2018: 5-11, LAST IN AFC SOUTH): Jacksonville moved on from quarterback Blake Bortles and brought in Nick Foles to try to mitigate the turnovers that derailed them last season, when they coughed it up 29 times. They also added former Chiefs receiver Chris Conley, who along with Marqise Lee and Dede Westbrook could stabilize the passing game needed to complement running back Leonard Fournette. Cornerback Jalen Ramsey, defensive ends Calais Campbell and Yannick Ngakoue, and linebacker Myles Jack anchor a defense that again figures to be one of the league’s best.
EXTRA POINTS
1. The Chiefs have scored 25 or more points in an NFL-record 21 consecutive regular-season games.
2. Foles is 11-3 over his past 14 starts and is 3-0 in season-opening starts.
3. The Chiefs have won four straight meetings, including a 30-14 home victory last October.
PREDICTION: Chiefs 31, Jaguars 23