Undefeated at Home, Washington Favored Over Kansas City

NFL News - October 12th, 2009 - Written by Scott

The Kansas City Chiefs were as close to a win as they had been all season in Week Five, falling to Dallas in overtime. Their secondary ruined a good effort in which the offense scored it's most points of the season, surrendering 250 receiving yards to Miles Austin. The fourth-year wide out was making his first career start, and had two touchdown catches of 60 yards. That's the bad news.

The good news is they get the Washington Redskins as a follow-up. The Redskins are on of the few enigmas left in the NFL. They have had every opportunity to start the year 4-1 after losing to the Giants in Week One, facing a winless team in each of their first five games. But three of those teams got their first win of the season, including the Detroit Lions who won their first game in 21 tries. Now the Chiefs attempt to become the fourth, slowly improving every week under head coach Todd Haley's offense.

BetUS still favors the Redskins at home, the only arena they have won in this season. They are early 6 1/2-point favorites this season, an understandable price considering they are 2-0 at home this year. The over-under is initially set at 38, which is relatively low. But the Redskins have hit the under in nine of their last 10 games as the favorite. The only exception was a tie last year.

Both teams are averaging under 17 points a game, which puts them squarely in the lower third of the league, and are 24th and 25th in rushing yards per game.

That has put a huge strain on the passing game and only Kansas City's has seemed to improve. Matt Cassel hasn't sizzled so far, but hasn't fizzled, either. He has 711 yards through the air with seven touchdowns and only two picks. He was 23-of-41 last week for 253 yards and two scores, but has been sacked 14 times in four games.

Washington's Jason Campbell, however, hasn't put up near those numbers over the last two weeks. In fact, he's only passed 253 yards once this entire season, and that was against Detroit. In that game, Santana Moss was electric, and is the likely candidate to exploit the Chiefs' weakened defensive backfield. He is the team leader in receptions and yards, but has seen a significant decline since going for 178 against the Lions. He led the team with 44 yards last week and, odds are, his team will need more real estate from him against Kansas City, which ranks 30th in pass defense. He went off the last time he faced Kansas City in 2005, catching 10 passes for 173 yards.

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