Philadelphia Eagles opponents preview - Kansas City Chiefs

This is the next part in our series of previews of the Eagles 2009 opponents. Joining us for this feature is Dave Schwab, who writes about the Eagles at his site Eagles Lincs.

One of my favorite regular season Eagles wins came the last time the Eagles played the Chiefs back in 2005. The Eagles came back from being down 17-0 and 24-6 to win the game on the road 37-31. That was then, this is now... What's in store for us 4 years later? Check out Dave's full analysis after the jump.

The (1-1) Eagles will try and rebound from the beating they took last week from New Orleans when they host the (0-2) Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday September 27^th in a 1:00P.M. start at Lincoln Financial Field. Hopefully the Birds will give the fans something to cheer about this week in their second straight home game. Kansas City could be the perfect opponent to help the Eagles put the Saint loss behind them and get their record back over .500 to 2-1 heading into their bye week. The Chiefs are coming off a 13-10 loss to the Oakland Raiders in a game that they dominated in every phase except on the scoreboard. They outgained them in total yards (409-166) and time of possession (38:39 – 21:21) but were unable to convert these advantages into points. As is the case with a young team that has lost 16 of their last 18 games, they just do not know how to win. In week one the hung tough against a very good Baltimore Raven team for 2/3rds of the game before breaking down and giving up some huge plays. If the Eagles can take care of the ball themselves, their defense should be able to capitalize on this weakness and create a few turnovers to help the offense.

The Chiefs offense is led by QB Matt Cassel who saw his first action of the season in week two after being sidelined with a leg injury from the preseason. Cassel was picked up in a trade with New England this past off season, and the Chiefs have pinned their hope of turning things around squarely on his shoulders. He looked a bit rusty on Sunday, throwing for 241 yards and a TD, but also had two picks. They will try and get their ground game going with RB Larry Johnson, but he has only gained 98 yards on 38 carries so far this year. Cassel will look to WR’s Dwayne Bowe and Bobby Wade to try and push the ball downfield. Beyond this they are pretty thin on talent.

Defensively they have pretty decent stats so far ranking 14^th in passing yards allowed and 18^th in total yards allowed. While they held the Raiders to 10 points they did give up 38 to Baltimore. They are led by NT Tank Tyler and LB Mike Vrabel who was also part of the trade with New England. Vrabel brings with him some veteran leadership that is desperately needed on this team. Baltimore QB Joe Flacco was able to expose some holes in their secondary throwing for 301 yards and 3 touchdowns, so hopefully Donovan McNabb will back under center trying to do the same.

The Eagles are clearly the better team in this match up and as long as they can forget about last week’s game they should be able to not only score a ton of points, but shut down the Kansas City offense and keep them from getting into the end zone. Like I mentioned earlier, the Chiefs have some talent, but they do not yet know how to win. Especially on the road playing a team that will be looking to take some frustration out on someone.

Check out more of Dave's insights at Eagles Lincs.