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It’s always interesting to see what happens when individual power rankings have to account for a team that had the week off. The Kansas City Chiefs got the usual treatment after their Week 12 bye: some were up, some were down — and most were unchanged.
Here’s this week’s sampling:
NFL.com: 4
(unchanged from 4)
Led by Chris Jones, the Chiefs piled up five sacks in their Week 11 win over Cowboys. It was a nice change of pace for the Kansas City defense, which entered the day with just 14 sacks in its first 10 games. Jones is the unquestioned star of the unit, but Steve Spagnuolo now has a collection of seasoned pass rushers to do his bidding. In Jones, Jarran Reed, Melvin Ingram and Frank Clark, the Chiefs now deploy four players in their front seven who have registered a 10-sack season in their respective careers. If they can continue to cook up pressure on the quarterback, good things will continue to happen.
— Dan Hanzus
ESPN: 6
(up from 7)
Week 6 confidence rating: 6.0
How it’s going now: 9.0
The Chiefs are winning games with their defense by allowing fewer than 12 points per contest over the past four. Earlier this season, it looked as if it would be years before the Chiefs would be competitive on defense; but if this keeps up, every game they play the rest of the way is winnable. It is troublesome that the offense has one game in the past five with more than 20 points; one bad day for the defense could blow up all the Chiefs’ plans if that continues.
— Adam Teicher
Sports Illustrated: 7
(down from 1)
Steve Spagnuolo’s defense allowed 17, 7, 14 and 9 points in a 4–0 November. If the offense becomes its scary self again, look out.
— Albert Breer
CBSSports.com: 5
(up from 8)
They come off their bye as the team in the AFC that nobody wants to play. The defense is getting things turned around. They have a big division game with Denver this week.
— Pete Prisco
Yahoo! Sports: 6
(up from 8)
The Chiefs are back to sole possession of first place in the AFC West. We probably should have seen that coming, even when they were slumping.
— Frank Schwab
The Sporting News: 7
(unchanged from 7)
The Chiefs got themselves right before the bye with a sizzling perfect November, finding both their true offensive and defensive identities at midseason, something they’ve done well in the past with Andy Reid. They will come out of it with a real chance to run the table and pile on powering back up into strong AFC title favorites again.
— Vinnie Iyer
USA Today: 4
(down from 5)
Winners of four straight, they better hit ground (still) running coming off bye week. Its AFC West lead just one game, Kansas City could just about make a sixth consecutive division title a reality by sweeping through the next three games – all against divisional foes, the first two (Denver, Las Vegas) at Arrowhead Stadium.
— Nate Davis
The Washington Post: 4
(unchanged from 4)
The Chiefs return from their bye for a final push toward the playoffs and, they hope, another deep postseason run. They have played much more like themselves lately, with wins in four straight and five of six. The post-bye schedule begins with three straight AFC West games: at home against the Broncos and Raiders, then on the road against the Chargers.
— Mark Maske
Mile High Report: 6
(up from 9)
As for the big winners over the last two weeks [Mile High Report did not publish power rankings during Week 12], the Baltimore Ravens are surging despite some inconsistent offensive output, but the biggest winner so far is Mac Jones and the New England Patriots. Oh, and the Kansas City Chiefs have won four straight.
— Tim Lynch
Bleeding Green Nation: 5
(unchanged from 5)
The Chiefs return from their bye to play three straight division games: vs. DEN, vs. LVR, at LAC. Big opportunity to take control of the AFC West.
— Brandon Lee Gowton
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