Riding high off of a Week 10 victory against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Kansas City Chiefs AFC West showdown against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 11 will be must-watch television. NFL fans everywhere have been impressed by the performance of quarterback Patrick Mahomes in 2022, his first year without long-time weapon Tyreek Hill. The 7-2 Chiefs will look to keep their pursuit of the number one overall seed in the conference going strong.
The Chargers, coming off a close primetime loss to the San Francisco 49ers, find themselves breathing down the Chiefs' neck with a 5-4 record in second place in the AFC West. The Chargers cannot afford to slip up and lose their footing, and this game will be a defining moment of their season. As such, this Chiefs-Chargers game will have massive ramifications in their division, and the AFC playoff picture as a whole.
With this in mind, here are our three bold predictions for the Kansas City Chiefs in their Week 11 game against the Chargers.
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3. Clyde Edwards-Helaire bounces back and finds the end zone in Week 11
After an extremely quiet Week 10 in which the former first-round pick only played four snaps, Edwards-Helaire looks like the odd man out in the Chiefs' backfield. Since coming out of their Week 8 bye week, the Chiefs have only given the ball to Edwards-Helaire four times on the ground to go along with a minuscule two targets in the passing game. At this point, iSo it is fair to say that the former LSU product has been somewhat of a bust.
Many believe rookie Isiah Pachecho, who shouldered the load against the Jags with 16 carries, is the new sheriff in town. However, that performance is only the third time this season Pacheco has gone over ten carries in a game and the first time since Week 4 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Therefore, predicting when the former Rutgers product will pop off is not an easy task.
What is worth pointing out is that Edwards-Helaire's best game of the season came against this same Chargers team in Week 2, rushing for 74 yards and catching four passes for an additional 44 yards through the air. So while the long-term future of the nicknamed CEH is unclear, a bounceback performance in Week 11 is certainly not out of the question.
2. Kadarius Toney erupts and goes off for 100+ yards
Last week saw Toney, the recent trade acquisition from the New York Giants, record his first career NFL touchdown. While his debut with the Chiefs in Week 9 was pretty quiet, it makes sense when you consider he had just recently joined the team and that it takes time for new players to get acclimated in their new environment. That said, the jump from two to five targets in Week 10 is rather telling. Head coach Andy Reid wants to get the former Florida product highly involved sooner rather than later.
With Toney's usage trending toward sizeable integration, it is only a matter of time before a massive game comes from the 2021 first-round pick. Additionally, the health of teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster could make way for Toney to step into a more prominent role. Smith-Schuster sustained a concussion in Week 10, and his availability for this Chargers showdown could be in question.
This primetime divisional bout seems as good a time as any for Toney to have his coming out party as a member of the Chiefs.
1. Patrick Mahomes throws four touchdowns
In their matchup in Week 2, Mahomes put up a relatively quiet game relative to his standards, hurling 235 yards and only a pair of touchdowns. In the time since the Chiefs last faced the Chargers, however, Mahomes has emerged as a front-runner for the NFL MVP. According to Pro Football Reference, Mahomes has logged a league-leading 2936 passing yards and 29 touchdowns.
Mahomes isn't the only supremely skilled quarterback in this game, either. Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, who recently had his praises sung by Mahomes, is no slouch. The talented Herbert ranks in the top ten of those categories, too, with 2450 passing yards and 14 touchdowns of his own. Because of how skilled both players are, this primetime matchup will surely be a high-scoring affair.
Especially when you consider that the Chiefs' defense has allowed the most passing touchdowns to opposing offenses in the league this year (19), it will be incumbent upon Mahomes to hold up his end of the bargain and keep his team in the game. Should this game become a shootout as many expect that it will, fans are probably looking at Mahomes' fourth 4+ passing touchdown game of the 2022 NFL season.
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