A Homer’s Guide To The Kansas City Chiefs: What You Need To Know

(Adam from Arrowhead Addict was nice enough to put this together for us. Go check out his site to get caught up on the Chiefs. Thanks, Adam!)

Arizona Cardinals (0-1) take the field this weekend against the Kansas City Chiefs (1-0) on Saturday evening at the one and only Arrowhead Stadium.

What to Watch For: Which Brodie Croyle will show up; the one who couldn’t beat out Damon Huard last  year, or the one who shredded the Chicago Bears a week ago? In fact, the whole Chiefs’ team kind of has a schizophrenic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-thing going on. With young stars like Dwayne Bowe, Derrick Johnson and Glenn Dorsey (if he plays), the Chiefs are capable of beating anybody on any given day. The Red and Gold is also capable of losing to anybody on any given day.

Key Offensive Match-Up: Dwayne Bowe and Tony Gonzalez vs. the Cardinals’ struggling secondary. These two are going to be tougher to keep in check than Robert Meachem, believe it or not. The Chiefs are without starting left tackle Branden Albert, though, so maybe the Cards’ front seven will be able to put some pressure on Croyle and help the secondary out?

Key Defensive Match-Up: The Chiefs’ struggling pass rush vs. the Cards’ offensive line. If the Chiefs are going to have any success defensively, the defensive line, and even the linebackers, are going to have to do a better job of applying some heat to whoever is under center for the Cards. I don’t care if the defensive schemes are vanilla–so are the offensive ones. Get it done. Tamba Hali and Turk McBride will certainly have their hands full with Mike Gandy and Levi Brown, respectively.

Other Thoughts: It will be interesting to see how the Chiefs’ rookie corners, Brandon Carr and Brandon Flowers, handle Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald. Kinda scary…despite what the mainstream media will lead you to believe, Larry Johnson has returned to his Earl Campbellesque form of old…the Chiefs also have a helluva battle going on for their third, fourth and fifth receiver spots. The most interesting battle: coach’s pet Jeff Webb vs. the people’s champ Bobby Sippio…Demorrio Williams could put his hand down in the game and play some falcon, a la Derrick Thomas. You might not see this yet, but it’s possible given the Chiefs’ current pass-rushing woes.

This game should reveal quite a bit about both squads. Thanks for having me!