Wednesday 26 November 2014 14:19, UK
The season is really starting to hot up now and if you like your 'ground and pound' then you're in luck as the Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs will serve up plenty of tough running in our first live game on Sunday.
Both of these teams have found a hot streak with the reigning champions having won their last three while the Chiefs have strung four wins back-to-back to leave both teams at a healthy-looking 6-3 for the season.
That’s only good enough for a wildcard spot as it stands though, and Seattle in particular have a brutal schedule coming up, with two games against both San Francisco and Arizona, as they try and chase down first spot in the NFC West and home field advantage in the playoffs.
A loss for Pete Carroll’s men would put them in real trouble, so they’ll not want to take any chances. That means leaning heavily on the running game that has got them back on track after something of a sticky spell.
The weapon of choice for the Chiefs is also along the ground; they are second to only Seattle in rushing touchdowns this season (13 to 14) and they’ve been winning smart – since week one their only defeats have been in close calls against Denver and San Francisco.
The formula for Seattle is quite simple – feed Marshawn Lynch the ball. It’s no surprise that since they’ve upped his workload from around 28 carries to 36 that they’ve enjoyed three wins and lead the league in 5.51 yards per carry. Seattle ran the ball 45 times against the Giants last week for a team record 350 yards and Lynch scored a career-best four TDs.
With the Chiefs' defence ranked in 30th in yards per attempt, that adds up to a big day for Lynch, and indeed his quarterback Russell Wilson, who has been struggling overall but has made up for that with his legs as he recorded his third 100-yard rushing game of the season last week – only he and Michael Vick have done that.
The Chiefs are no mugs in the running game themselves; they’re fifth best in the NFL. They’ve needed to be too, as they’ve done hardly anything in there air, but they’ve been finding ways to win games, last week through Jamaal Charles and QB Alex Smith both scoring rushing touchdowns to beat the Bills.
Smith’s game management has drawn plaudits, in opposition to Wilson who has led a flawed passing offence. With these two teams being 30th and 31st in passing offence, and Seattle’s famed secondary being eclipsed by the Chiefs’ top-ranked passing defence, there will not be much aerial attack to speak of in this one.
At least the Seattle receiving corps has found the end zone this season, something you can’t say about Kansas City as Smith has yet to throw a TD pass to any receiver on his team, quite a remarkable stat for a 6-3 team.
He does have an aerial outlet in tight end Travis Kelce though, who he looks for straight away in the red zone. He’s got four touchdowns this season and his prospects for more are pretty good against this Seattle secondary, who have allowed 10 TDs to opposing tight ends this season – the second most in the league.
With the passing attack almost a non-factor, whether Kansas City can run on Seattle’s third-best rush defence could be a key to this game, but with Brandon Mebane done for the season and Bobby Wagner still out they will fancy getting some joy if Seattle’s replacements leave them with a soft centre.
Charles has rushing touchdowns in his last four games but their offence overall is languishing in 22nd and last week they recorded a third game this season with less than 300 yards of total offence, even if they they did manage to erase a ten-point deficit to win that one. They’ll need to do better against Seattle, however.
"We've been in a mode where it's really been focusing on the running game and trying to make sure we get that done. I think it's worked out. I think it's helped us. I think we're more like we've been and we like it. We're going to keep going," Seattle head coach Pete Carroll.
"These wins are different, that's for sure. I think it's a different type of confidence you get when you win games like this and you keep that momentum going. There's certainly going to be a lot for us to look at and how we can grow from that," Chiefs QB Alex Smith.
Watch the Super Bowl champions Seattle Seahawks in action at the Kansas City Chiefs live on Sky Sports 2 HD from 5.30pm on Sunday.
