Cincy Jungle staff picks for Thursday Night Football and open thread

This week for Thursday Night Football, we will see the Denver Broncos get slaughtered visit Arrowhead Stadium to take on the Kansas City Chiefs. This is an AFC West matchup of two teams that seem to be going in drastically different directions on the season.

The Chiefs haven’t lost since the Detroit Lions spoiled the opening game of the season, but that isn’t to say things haven’t been close. Their last two games against the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings were decided by a single score and a questionable move by the refs.

Kansas City seems to have shifted its formula a little bit. The defense has been a very impressive unit that doesn’t have to be made up for with amazing offensive numbers. You can tell over the last few years, plenty of capital has been spent on the defense, and it is all starting to come together a bit. That isn’t to say this team isn’t still defined by quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce at the end of the day, though. Those two have played a major part in Kansas City winning 15 straight games (!) vs. Denver.

The Broncos have just been bad. New head coach Sean Payton hasn’t done much to change the results from what happened in Denver last season. It started off with a glimmer of hope as they barely lasted through their first couple of games, but when the Miami Dolphins scored 70 points on them in Week 3, it really showed that this team isn’t ready to compete with any contenders this year.

In fact, it makes you wonder how many points this Chiefs offense can score at home against the Broncos. Since Week 2, no one has scored less than 28 points against this defense. Two of those teams include the New York Jets and Chicago Bears. Not exactly the most potent offenses this year. This one feels like more of a question of whether Kansas City can possibly cover the 11-point spread, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.

Be sure to join the discussion as this will be today’s open thread!