NFL Football Preview: Houston Texans at Kansas City Chiefs

Sunday afternoon NFL action features a matchup of one of the biggest surprise teams in football against one of the biggest disappointments. The Kansas City Chiefs were awful last season slumping to a 2-14 record. This season they’ve been perfect through six games–they’re 6-0 and one of only two undefeated teams remaining in the NFL (Divisional rival Denver is the other). The Houston Texans, on the other hand, were expected to be not only a contender in the AFC but for a Super Bowl championship. Instead they’re 2-4 and coming off an embarrassing home loss to the St. Louis Rams.

Andy Reid reached the end of the road in Philadelphia last season but landed on his feet taking the job in Kansas City where the Chiefs have responded well to his influence. Kansas City was never lacking in talent–they sent six players to the Pro Bowl last year–but they’ve had a revolving door of incompetent coaches in recent years. They’ve also had their share of incompetent quarterbacks led by last year’s starter Matt Cassell. Much in the same way that Reid is a ‘competent’ NFL coach new starting quarterback Alex Smith is a ‘competent’ quarterback who doesn’t make stupid mistakes. The Chiefs have a solid defense and haven’t turned the ball over on offense. Execution can take you far in the NFL.

And that’s a perfect transition to talk about the Houston Texans–a brutally talented team that has executed very poorly so far in the 2013 season. They’ll be playing without starting quarterback Matt Schaub for at least the next couple of games. That means rookie Case Keenum will get the start here today and in a strange way that could benefit the team forcing the veterans to ‘pick up the slack’ which in theory at least could improve their focus and execution. Of particular interest is the Texans’ horrible loss at home last week–there’s an old adage that ‘NFL teams are never as good as they look at their best or as bad as they look at their worst.’ The public may be overreacting to that debacle and the Chiefs’ hot start. We’ll take the points with the road team.

BET HOUSTON TEXANS +7 OVER KANSAS CITY CHIEFS