November 14, 2020

By Fred Liggett
FredL@lstribune.net

The Kansas City Chiefs have arrived at the team’s “bye” week for the 2020 season which means the team can enjoy a week away from the grind of a long 16-game regular season. The Chiefs enter this break with the second best record in the NFL at 8-1. Only the AFC’s Pittsburgh Steelers has a better mark at 8-0.

Just like many things in 2020 this year’s bye week will be far from normal for the players and coaches. There is NO goodbye for Chiefs players and staff who are not permitted to leave town due to NFL’s COVID-19 rules. In fact many of the players may see each other every day during this bye week. Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid has no practices scheduled but each player will be required to spend time at a trailer for daily COVID-19 testing.

At the start of the season the Chiefs announced there theme this year would be “Run it back” as in run it all the way back to the Super Bowl for another championship. The Chiefs hit their bye week looking real good in that effort. The team sits comfortably in first place of the AFC West Division with a two and a half game lead over the Las Vegas Raiders. When looking ahead to the playoffs and earning the AFC’s top seed the Chiefs have beaten the Ravens and Bills and only trail the Steelers by a half game after nine weeks.

Coming into the bye week at 8-1 says a lot of things went right for the team in the first half of the season. Last week the Chiefs concerned some of their fan base by eking out a home 33-31 win over Carolina who now is 3-6 on the year. Coach Reid even admitted there is work to be done during his weekly press conference stating, “There are things we can learn in all three phases to better ourselves.” Most common concerns seem to be the team’s run defense and special teams. Injuries always plays a role in how well a team does and the Chiefs have fared well in this category. In fact the team is expecting back OL Mitchell Schwartz and WR Sammy Watkins when the season resumes on Nov. 22.

Winning eight out of nine games has no doubt given Chiefs fans plenty to like so far in 2020. When the season resumes the fun will continue thanks in large part to the team’s schedule. First game back finds the Chiefs at rival Las Vegas in primetime on a Sunday night. Adding fuel to the event is the Raiders being the only team so far to give this edition of the Chiefs a loss. After the team’s first trip to Las Vegas for an NFL game the Chiefs will play at New Orleans and Miami. These two matchups will give fans plenty to watch especially at the quarterback position. No worries the Chiefs will get to host some fun at Arrowhead thanks to a Sunday night game against division rival Denver on Dec. 6.

The Chiefs have given their fans plenty of reasons to watch on their run it back tour. Winning eight games since the Labor Day holiday has given Chiefs fans plenty to enjoy. The second half schedule sets up to provide much the same for the team and its fan base. Let’s hope the players’ visits to the trailer goes well this week so the team can all return to the practice field next week. Then the team can enjoy a road trip to the bright lights of Las Vegas to start the second half of the season. That’s What I REID Into It for this week.

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