October 8, 2022

By Fred Liggett
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It’s week five of the 2022 NFL season and it’s time for the Kansas City Chiefs to complete a prime-time trifecta when they host rival Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night. The Chiefs in a very short period of time will have played a Thursday night, a Sunday night and a Monday Night Football game. Those three nights are the only nights the NFL holds regular season games. Within a month time the Chiefs will have played on all prime time television time slots airing on Amazon Prime, NBC and ESPN.

What will the country see this time? Another edition of the Chiefs/Raiders rivalry that dates back to the start of the AFL in 1960? The teams always play competitive games no matter what their records. For this 2022 edition the records don’t look promising as the Raiders enter at 1-3 coming off their first win on the season. The Chiefs arrive at 3-1 sitting atop the AFC West Division and coming off from an impressive win on the road.

Any long time Chiefs or Raiders fan will tell you to throw the record books out and enjoy the game. The Chiefs are at home and are favored by a touchdown by the experts. Despite that the Raiders come to KC off from the team’s first win on the season ending a three-game slide to start the season. The Raiders three losses have all come at six points or less including one in overtime. Last week’s 32-23 win over Denver showed the Raiders are getting acclimated to first year head coach Josh McDaniels.

If the Raiders plan to have success on Monday it most likely will come through the air. The Chiefs defense has grounded their opponents’ ground game the last three weeks. The Chiefs may have lost the game to the Colts in Indy but they shut down their franchise running back Jonathan Taylor. Last week the Chiefs limited the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to just three yards rushing the entire game. This week’s challenge for the Chiefs will be Raiders RB Josh Jacobs.

Not only did the Chiefs win impressively down in Tampa but left town without any additions to the team’s injury report. The recent performances have been noticed league wide as Punter Tommy Townsend was named AFC Special Teams Player of the Month for his stellar September. QB Patrick Mahomes was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week for the second time in four games this season. On hand to get a better look at the Chiefs this week is the new Monday Night Football TV announcing crew of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman now in their first year after working together at Fox for 20 years.

A healthy Chiefs team combined with head coach Andy Reid penchant for beating AFC West rivals will show in prime time they perform well under the all the bright lights as they improve to 4-1 on the season. That’s What I REID Into It for this week.