Arrowheadlines: Kansas City Chiefs News 11/1

Chiefs vs. Lions: Game Preview from The Mothership

Much of West's success came as a result of a key shift in Kansas City's offensive line, but that will change again this week as left guard Ben Grubbs has officially been ruled out for the game with a neck injury. Grubbs has played the left guard position in each of the first seven games for Kansas City this year.

On the right side of the injury pendulum, the Chiefs welcome back WR Jeremy Maclin in the passing game after he missed last week's game due to a concussion. Even after missing a game, Maclin is quarterback Alex Smith's most targeted player and he'll be looking for his second touchdown of the season in London.

Although Detroit's defense ranks 27th in yards allowed per game (392.3), Smith will need to pay special attention to defensive end Ziggy Ansah, who leads the Lions in sacks with 6.

Chiefs vs. Lions: How to Watch and Listen from The Mothership

• This week's matchup will be the Chiefs first game in London. The Chiefs have not played outside of the United States in the regular season in team history. The club's last international game was the 1998 American Bowl, a preseason contest played in Tokyo, Japan, against the Packers.

• The Chiefs and Lions have played five of their 12 games against each other in the month of November during each team's history. Kansas City has a 3-2 record in those five games versus Detroit.

Game Day Forecast from The Weather Channel

Next 6 Hours

Low clouds, fog and poor visibility conditions will improve by 1:45pm. Decreasing cloudiness. Temperatures steady near 54F. Winds light and variable.

Away from Arrowhead: Chiefs had reasons for surrendering home game to London from The Kansas City Star

Sunday marks a home game for the Chiefs, and fans of the team will congregate in a public place, ready to party.

But instead of packing Arrowhead Stadium by the carload as the sweet smell of barbecue wafts through the air, a portion of them will assemble indoors at a much smaller venue — a team watch party at Johnny's Tavern in the Power & Light District — to see the Chiefs play the Detroit Lions on TV in a "home" game at London's historic Wembley Stadium.

A number of fans have embraced the move, some even traveling to London for the game. But others have voiced their displeasure about losing one of eight regular-season home games at publicly funded Arrowhead Stadium. Chiefs home games have value both financial and sentimental.

The Chiefs say the decision to play this game overseas, and not in Kansas City, did not come easily.

American football in London? English get up-close look at Chiefs ahead of Sunday's game from The Kansas City Star

The game's confusing, the name's confusing — Sporting KC plays football, the Chiefs play American football — and it's competing for an audience more interested in rugby, cricket and football. Football football — soccer, to you — not American football.

The capital of England might be even less familiar with the teams involved. Because we generally don't add "city" onto the end of place names in the UK, Kansas City can easily be confused with Kansas the state. Not that either can immediately be placed on the map by your average Londoner. Ask the man in the street to name a famous Kansas City landmark, and he's more likely to say the Yellow Brick Road rather than Arthur Bryant's.

Which of course makes your average Kansas Citian wince.

All that's surely set to change on Sunday, when the NFL and the Chiefs bring football and Kansas City to Wembley Stadium. But the groundwork for Kansas City to make its mark on London has already been done with, what else, barbecue.

Chiefs fans from America, London enjoying team's visit to U.K. from The Kansas City Star

"I think the NFL base here, and seeing the fans here, makes it better," Rachel said. "You think you're coming over here to a bunch of fans who know nothing about football. And that's not true. We've met some fantastic people that are Chiefs fans that are from here. I mean, how do they pick a (favorite) team?"

They've heard some interesting stories about that. One guy told them he became a Chiefs fan in the early 2000s when the Trent Green-led offense was dominating football.

"And one of the other guys that we met last night said he became a Chiefs fan when the Packers went 15-1 and he listed to the one (on the radio) where the Kyle Orton-led Chiefs beat the Packers, and I thought that was hilarious," Mike said.

Building on third-down success important for Chiefs against Lions from Chiefs Digest

Smith and the offense have prime conditions to continue success against an accommodating Lions defense, on paper at least.

The Lions rank in the bottom half of the league in numerous statistical defensive categories, including yards allowed per game (392.3, 27th), yards allowed per play (6.08, 29th) and points allowed per game (28.6, 29th).

Detroit also enters Sunday's contest allowing opposing offenses to convert 41.2 percent on third down, which ranks 24th in the league.

Lions vs. Chiefs: Scouting report, prediction from The Detroit Free Press

Overall

The Lions and Chiefs are two of the NFL's most underachieving teams this year, with similar stories of despair. Both have struggled to score behind bad offensive lines, and both have more talent than their records reflect.

Charles is one of the best backs in the NFL when healthy, and the Chiefs' running game doesn't scare anyone without him. The Lions turn the ball over too much and don't have enough playmakers left on defense.

Firing three assistants Monday didn't cure all of the Lions' problems, but it should give them a minor bump against a bad team. If not, there's a good chance more changes are ahead.

Pick: Lions 24, Chiefs 19.

Eric Berry is a source of inspiration after beating cancer as Kansas City Chiefs face Detroit Lions from The Daily Mail

‘You can't look too far ahead. I did that in the beginning and ended up crying to my dad for about 30 minutes at breakfast because it was a long road. I just wanted to take it day step by step and day by day and see where it took me.'

‘Fear nothing, attack everything, that's kind of how I did things,' he added.

More milestones were ticked off: he played in a preseason game and was back in competitive action during September's defeat to the Denver Broncos.

Last week he made his first interception of the season as the Chiefs beat the Pittsburgh Steelers for only their second win of the season.

Today they face the Detroit Lions, a team with just one win to their name. At 2-5, the Chiefs will need a lot of to turn their season around.

But with Berry in their ranks, he could just be the inspiration they need.

Chiefs writer: West a solid replacement for Charles from The Detroit Free Press

Dave Birkett caught up with Terez Paylor, beat writer for the Kansas City Star, for three questions before the Detroit Lions play the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at Wembley Stadium in London:

NFL expansion to London is 'extraordinary', says Leiweke from The Telegraph

With Wembley Stadium preparing to welcome a bigger crowd for Sunday's American Football game than Twickenham will for Saturday's Rugby World Cup Final, the National Football League's chief operating officer has hailed the "extraordinary" achievement of the league's expansion to the United Kingdom.

More than 80,000 will watch the Detroit Lions take on the Kansas City Chiefs, including the NFL's new COO Tod Leiweke who is in London for the first time since being appointed.

Ex-Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes tweaks the Mets via Twitter from NY Daily News

The guy who kicked for the Giants in their two most recent championship seasons, took to Twitter on Saturday morning to tweak the Mets.

"Rumor has it the @Mets are going to dress up like ball players tonight for Halloween. #LetsGoRoyals #TakeTheCrown," Tynes tweeted.

Lions OC Jim Bob Cooter's arrest records disappear from The Sporting News

"What I may have said with regard to an incident years ago does not mean that I can confirm that record again," Knoxville police spokesman Darrell DeBusk said. "There's no record. There's nothing."

Cooter, 31, was originally arrested and charged with aggravated burglary in 2009 and drunken-driving in 2006. In June 2009, a woman claimed he climbed through an apartment window, stripped down to his underwear and got into bed with her.

Chelsea's ‘ruthless chancer', the Brazilian NFL kicker & the week's best sportswriting from The 42

Take Cairo Santos, a 23-year-old kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL. Hit the rewind button on his life and go back eight years.

Rewind until his square shoulders turn skinny and his confident demeanour shades into shyness. When you get to the part where this elite sportsman is just a nervous 15-year-old exchange student, kicking a football on a Florida driveway while the other kids play basketball, stop. You've arrived at the moment his life changes forever.