3 toughest stretches of Chiefs’ 2022 schedule
The complete 2022 NFL schedule has been revealed.
We already knew that the Kansas City Chiefs would have a tough schedule based on their slate of opponents for the 2022 NFL season. Seeing the structure of the team’s schedule adds a certain degree of difficulty to the opponents they’ll face.
On the initial schedule, we’ve identified some of the toughest stretches for Kansas City. These periods will require some expert navigation from Chiefs HC Andy Reid and the rest of the team if they’re to come out on top.
Here’s a quick look at three of the toughest stretches of the schedule for Kansas City:
Week 1 through Week 4
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This stretch isn’t necessarily the most difficult because of the opponents they’ll face. The Chiefs start out the schedule with three of the first four games on the road. They get a short week to prepare immediately after Week 1 against the Cardinals with a Thursday night home game against the Chargers. Then they get back-to-back road games against the Colts in the home opener for Indianapolis and finish it out with a prime-time game against the Buccaneers in the first rematch of Super Bowl LV.
While the Chiefs have an 8-1 record in Week 1 during the course of Andy Reid’s tenure, this team has a lot of new pieces to it. It’s reasonable to think that they could have a slow start on both the offensive side of the ball and the defensive side of the ball. How fast they start on either side could be the difference between an early-season skid as they had in 2021 or a better scenario.
Week 5 through Week 7
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
I could probably just have said, “The first seven weeks of the season are tough.” However, I wanted to break it up into two parts for a very specific reason. I feel that this stretch of the season will be tough because of both the opponents and the schedule structure. Facing a bitter rival like the Raiders on Monday night in Week 5 is going to be quite difficult, even with a little extra time to prepare. A Monday night game also means that the Chiefs will have a short week to prepare for the Bills — which is already being heralded as the biggest rematch of the year. That rematch against Buffalo isn’t the only rematch of this stretch either. It leads right into a rematch of Super Bowl LIV against the 49ers in Week 7. It’s just not an ideal stretch of situations or opponents.
Week 11 through Week 14
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This stretch could end up being the stretch that determines the Chiefs’ season. It starts off with a rematch with the Los Angeles Chargers on the road in Week 11. Then Kansas City will face both Super Bowl teams — the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals — in back-to-back weeks. The bottom piece of the crust is a prime-time game against the Denver Broncos in Week 14. Three of the four games come on the road, which only adds to the difficulty of the opponents. Coming out with at least a .500 record from these four games would be a big win as the opponents the team will face in the final four weeks of the season are much less difficult.
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