By Fred Liggett
FredL@lstribune.net

Following what has been a long and strange off season the Kansas City Chiefs will finally take the field to play a meaningful football game again, this time against the Houston Texans.

Thanks to no pre-season games this year the Chiefs won the last NFL game that was played and now look to win the first game of the new season. The NFL always finds a tantalizing match up to begin a new year and they have done it again with the defending Super Bowl Champion Chiefs hosting the Texans in a battle of two teams looking to claim AFC supremacy.

These two teams offer many similarities and any of their most recent meetings are an indication of what can be expected on this Thursday night in the national spotlight. On the field the Chiefs got the better of the Texans in the last meeting which turned out to be an historic AFC playoff game on Jan. 12th. The Chiefs used a record breaking comeback to win that Sunday afternoon on their way to an AFC Championship. Earlier in the 2019 season the Texans beat the Chiefs in a week 6 game 31-24 in a game at Arrowhead.

The on the field results are not the only place one can see how close these two teams are. A look at the NFL standings see that the Chiefs were AFC West division champions, the Texans were the AFC South division champions. Away from the field the Chiefs rewarded starting QB Patrick Mahomes with record breaking 10 year deal that could be worth over $500 million dollars. The Texans chose to reward their franchise quarterback with a contract extension that is worth $160 million dollars over four years.

There are a few changes since the last time the Chiefs and Texans got together. The Chiefs find themselves with two new starting offensive lineman and a first round pick starting at running back in Clyde Edwards-Helaire. The Texans may return QB DeShaun Watson but find 40% of their starting offense from 2019 not returning this season. Head Coach Bill O’ Brien is now also the team’s general manager. A new defensive coordinator has also been brought in with hopes he can find a way to slow the terrific offenses found in the AFC led by the Chiefs.

Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid is 8-2 against the Texans and the Chiefs have won five season openers in a row tied for the longest active streak in the NFL. Reid’s teams are known to get off to hot starts as a 12-1 September record indicates over the last three seasons. The Chiefs are at home, return 18 of their 22 starters from a year ago and the team is healthy with every player practicing this week. The NFL and football fans everywhere will welcome back the game they love & will enjoy an entertaining game to start the 2020 season that will see a familiar result with how the 2019 season ended, a Kansas City Chiefs victory. That’s What I REID Into It for this week.

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