New England Patriots x Kansas City Chiefs – Preview, Prediction and Betting Tips 17/12/2023

New England Patriots

New England’s attack has been suffering a lot from injuries, having lost at least four starting players. So far, WRs Juju Smith-Schuster and Demario Douglas, plus OGs Cole Stange and Mike Onwenu. They won’t return for this game and the blocks with the backups haven’t been the best. As for the receivers, they have good performances from Kendrick Bourne and Devante Parker, but they need the running game to fit better in order to be better.

The defense is interesting and has the return of CB JC Jackson who was traded by the Los Angeles Chargers back to New England and should form an excellent trio with Jonathan Jones and Myles Bryant in this secondary. Pressure on opposing QBs must also be a standard for this defense that needs to return for them to be competitive.

Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs continue to have QB Patrick Mahomes as the most prominent player in this offense. Now, the complement of the attack has been well below average. WRs Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Kadarious Toney have not delivered what the team expected when they acquired them. The running game also cannot be effective due to the fact that the team becomes one-dimensional with the aerial game having so much difficulty.

The defense has good names and the return of its best player after DT Chris Jones made a holdout. The salary bases for 2023 have been agreed and he returns in a rotation that really needs him. The secondary had problems, but has been improving game by game.

Conclusion:

This game has an interesting trend and we will try to explore it. The Chiefs rank 29th in second-half scoring through their six games and have reached under 16 second-half points in 16 of their last 20 games. They will face a New England team, which is tied for the worst-scoring team in the NFL and still faces a lot of injuries to its offensive players.

Both defenses are better than the offenses they will face. I really like this under in the second half and I’ll try to explore something that has been happening frequently in Chiefs games and the fact that the Patriots have a weaker attack and I will go here as the best bet in the match.