Passing Matchups Conference Round

Photo: Kyle Terada, USA Today Sports

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Top Passing Matchups

Cincinnati at Kansas City

Joe Burrow and the Bengals come into Arrowhead stadium full of confidence as they’re one of the hottest teams in the NFL over the course of the second half of the season. The Bengals have won ten in a row coming into this matchup against Kansas City. Their last loss was a Halloween game against the Browns, in which they got absolutely dominated. Since then, the Bengals are just winning. They are not putting up elite offensive numbers unless they have to, but they’re doing just enough to seemingly win every game as Burrow is averaging 259 passing yards per game, and outside of two 300+ yard performances against New England and Pittsburgh, he has topped 250 yards in just two other games. Of the receivers in Cincinnati, JaMarr Chase has been far and away the top option and has developed into a consistent threat as he has topped 60-yards in 9 straight games while scoring nine touchdowns in those nine games, including a 97-yard performance the last time these two teams met. Meanwhile, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd have struggled as both players have topped 40 yards just once over their last six games.

The Chiefs statistically show up as one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL, as they are allowing the second-most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks, the most passing touchdowns, and the 8th most passing yards. The stats don’t tell the full story here as this is a talented defense that is at the mercy of scoring a lot of points and facing the third-most pass attempts based on teams trying to play catch up against the Chiefs. Where the Chiefs excel is rushing the passer as they are second in the NFL this season in sacks which could be a problem for Cincinnati this week as left tackle Jonah Williams and right guard Alex Cappa are both questionable this week after missing last week due to injury. The one bright spot at corner for the Chiefs has been rookie Trent McDuffie. Since he became a full-time starter in Week 9 after suffering an injury in Week 1, the Chiefs defense has allowed just 205 yards passing per game compared to 313 while McDuffie was out, albeit against some strong competition during this time. In their first meeting, Joe Burrow and JaMarr Chase got the best of this Chiefs secondary as they threw for 286 yards and 2 touchdowns.