Thursday, May 17th, 2012
The Kansas City Chiefs will close out their bad season with a road game in AFC West action against the Denver Broncos in an NFL pro football game on Sunday afternoon. Kick off time in Denver is scheduled for 4:15PM Eastern Time with regional television coverage provided by CBS.
The LVSC NFL odds makers have set the opening point spread in this game and the Denver Broncos were opened as 13 point favorites with the over under coming in at 40.
The early money from the NFL betting public has been underdog Kansas City Chiefs money, as the Denver Broncos are currently a 12-½ point favorite. The total has seen early movement by the NFL betting public towards the under, as the over under is currently lined at 38.
NFL money line gamblers can make a play on the favored Denver Broncos at –675 with the road underdog Kansas City Chiefs returning +545 to win without the need for getting the points.
The Denver Broncos have a record of 8-7 and sit outside the playoffs. They do not control their destiny and with a win will need help to qualify. There are many scenarios for Denver to qualify needing combination of losses by contending teams. They can even qualify for the playoffs with a loss but would need many of the contending teams to lose on Sunday. Kansas City is concluding another bad season and sits at 3-12 on the season.
The Denver Broncos are coming off a tough 30-27 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles last week. That loss kept the Broncos from controlling their playoff destiny. The Broncos showed grit by overcoming a 27-10 second half deficit to tie the game at 27 all. But it was the pass defense that let the team down as Donovan McNabb passed for 289 yards including a key completion late in the game that set up the game winning field goal.
Quarterback Kyle Orton completed 66% of his passes last week for 189 yards three touchdowns and an interception. He has played well for the Broncos completing 62.7% of his passes with 20 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. An area the team has struggled big time this season has been their third down conversions. The Broncos have only converted 35.5% of them.
Rookie running back Knowshon Moreno has struggled down the stretch. The ball carrier has been no better than 2.7 yards per carry in his past three games which have all resulted in losses. In the teams huge loss to Oakland at home a few weeks back it was Moreno rushing 19 times for just 42 yards. Veteran running back Corell Buckhalter has seen about half the carries of Moreno and has averaged a respectable 5.5 yards a carry this season.
Defensively the Broncos allow just 18.7 points a game. They have defended against the pass very well this season sitting 2nd in the league allowing just 184 yards per game. The rush defense was a major improvement over past years as the team allows just 116 yards per game on the ground.
The Chiefs enter week 17 off a respectable performance at Cincinnati. They fought the Bengals very hard and fell 17-10. The defense had a good showing limiting Carson Palmer to just 130 yards passing.
Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel had a poor season hitting on just 55% of his passes with 16 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. He has thrown 8 interceptions in the teams past 4 games.
The biggest bright spot of the season has been the running of Jamaal Charles. The second year back was inserted into the lineup when veteran back Larry Johnson was cut for ineffectiveness. Charles has rushed for over 100 yards in each of his past three games. He is averaging an impressive 5.2 yards a carry on the season on 165 runs from scrimmage.
The defense has been a mess for the Chiefs this season. The team allows 26.7 points a game. They have given up 41 or more points in three of their past 5 games. The unit has been very poor in defending the run sitting 31st and second to last in the league allowing 161 yards per game and a high 4.8 yards per rush against average.
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NFL Trend: Denver Broncos are 6-17 ATS in their past 23 favorite roles
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