Kansas City will have two of their 2014 Pro Bowl selections return against Indy after missing their Week 16 matchup. LT Branden Albert should provide a nice boost for the offensive line, and LB Justin Houston should help put more pressure on Andrew Luck who was sacked just once in their last meeting.
The Chiefs' offense was stalled in their first meeting largely because they lost the turnover battle 4-0. Kansas City fumbled the ball six times -- losing three of them -- and threw an interception without getting a single takeaway on defense. This was extremely out of character for the Chiefs who are still second in the league in turnover margin even after that performance. The odds of Kansas City handing the Colts the ball that often again are slim to none.
In a way, losing to the Colts was beneficial to the Chiefs who would have otherwise been trying to rundown the Denver Broncos in the AFC West in a futile effort. The loss locked them in the No. 5 seed, and allowed them to rest all their starters against the San Diego Chargers in Week 17, including a few who were nursing injuries. Andy Reid has been in a position to rest his starters for the playoffs four times in his career, and his teams won three of those games.
Kansas City has a better record on the road than at home this season. Their only losses were at Denver and at San Diego, in overtime, with their backups playing the entire game. The Colts have lost twice at home — once to the Miami Dolphins and once in a blowout to the St. Louis Rams. Outside of their wins against the 2-14 Houston Texans and 4-12 Jacksonville Jaguars, Indy’s other four wins at home were all by six points or less.
It sounds silly to spell this out, but just because the same two teams are playing in a game doesn’t mean it will have the same outcome. You can’t look at Indy and KC’s last contest and expect for that to happen again. The path an NFL game will take is impossible to predict, and a previous matchup between teams is nothing more than anecdotal evidence. In Saturday’s matchup, both teams are going to succeed in areas where they failed last time and fail in areas where they succeeded.
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