The Detroit Lions can continue their excellent run of form on the road with another challenging environment after already winning in Baltimore and Cincinnati when they head out to the Kansas City Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium for a primetime matchup on Sunday.
The Lions (4-1) have played some very convincing football since a Week 1 stumble against the Packers, while the Chiefs (2-3) are off to their worst start since 2021.
But that won’t matter to Detroit as they know it’s still a tall task to beat the Chiefs on their home field with a roster still brimming with talent.
Here’s a preview of the Lions’ Week 6 opponent, the Kansas City Chiefs:
Three players to know
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* If you’re looking for what makes an offensive line with two young players operate at a high level, look to **center Creed Humphrey**. The fifth-year Chiefs center had had an incredible season in 2024 and is looking in the same form. He hasn’t allowed a sack since Week 14 of 2023 and grades out on Pro Football Focus as the second-best pass blocking center and third-best run-blocking center in the NFL. Humphrey holds down the middle and is always a key part of Kansas City establishing their offensive presence.
* The gantlet of game-wrecking edge rushers continues into Week 6 for the Lions as they now have to deal with KC’s **George Karlaftis**. He’s grown quite a lot since the last meeting with the Lions in 2023 and is on a tear with three straight games of seven-plus quarterback pressures, a sack in each game and 12 defensive stops against the run. He’s tied with Detroit’s Aidan Hutchinson for total quarterback pressures this season on 31.
* It’s hard to know just how threatening **rookie cornerback Nohl Williams** will be. And it’s not because of his play, the Cal product is showing himself to already be a capable option in the secondary with two pass break ups and an impressive PFF coverage grade of 90.9, allowing three catches on nine targets where he serves as the primary defender. The question mark is we just don’t know how much he’s going to play. The Chiefs have said there’s going to be expansion of his role after playing 39 snaps across Weeks 3 and 4, but he proceeded to play just four snaps in Week 5. He’s still one to keep an eye on.
Quarterback corner
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Two-time NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes continues to perform as one of the top quarterbacks in the league.
But this season we’ve not seen Mahomes at his absolute best.
He has 11 total touchdowns, 1,257 yards and just two interceptions, all generally in line with most of the quality quarterbacks in the league. There has been a pretty distinct drop in his overall accuracy, however.
Mahomes’ 63.4% completion rate is on track to be his career low since he was a rookie in 2017 and only had 35 pass attempts. He’s sat between 67%-68% completion rate in each of the past four seasons.
It doesn’t seem to be overly tied to his supporting cast of receivers, even as the unit has dealt with injuries and suspensions throughout the early parts of the season.
KC receivers have dropped 4.9% of on-target throws by Mahomes, according to PFF. That’s the second-lowest rate over Mahomes’ career, trailing just last season when they dropped 4.7% of on-target passes.
By no means will the Lions or anyone be downplaying the impact Mahomes can have on a game at any time, but he’s not hitting the MVP-caliber play that became the norm in Kansas City over the past seven seasons.
Keys to success
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* **Ramp up the pressure:** Every team is looking to cause pressure on the quarterback and force them to get off schedule. But it’s clearly becoming critical for the Chiefs to get to the quarterback to have any level of success. When KC brings pressure, opposing QBs are 28-of-52 (53.8%) for 360 yards on drop backs. When the Chiefs don’t get pressure, opposing QBs are 88-for-131 (67.2%) for 845 yards. The Lions are a decent pass blocking team and Jared Goff went three straight games without taking a sack from Week 2-4. But with Detroit left tackle Taylor Decker possibly missing another game, the ability for the Chiefs to get to Goff could be a deciding factor Sunday night.
* **Find the right balance with run game:** The Chiefs have been an odd team rushing the ball this year. Mahomes leads the team in rushing and has led the team three times this season. A running back has only led the team in rushing once this season (Isiah Pacheco in Week 3 with 45 yards). Oddly enough, in the Chiefs’ two wins this year, they’ve had their least efficient performances running the ball. But in order to set up Mahomes to operate the passing game at a high level, there needs to be more success rushing. KC has been open about still finding their offensive identity at this point in the season and after averaging a season-high 7.2 yards per attempt and scoring three touchdowns on the ground last week, the Chiefs will really want to start showing some consistency against a Lions defense that ranks seventh in the NFL for rushing.
One big question
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Can the Chiefs still hang in these close matchups?
With the way the Lions have been playing, a close game is not a guarantee. Detroit has put away its last two opponents and three of its last four by multiple scores.
The Chiefs also have some runaway victories, but their three losses have all come in one-score games against the Los Angeles Chargers, Philadelphia Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars.
It felt like almost every highlight close matchup the Chiefs found themselves in the past few years ended with “Mahomes Time” where the star quarterback would lead a dramatic final drive to come away with a memorable win.
This season the Chiefs have twice scored late to get within a score before failing to make a stop and even give Mahomes the opportunity to lead that kind of drive.
On Monday, he was afforded just 23 seconds to get it done against the Jaguars and they didn’t get particularly close to the end zone.
The Lions and Chiefs are both teams that can really get into a slugfest.
So far, Kansas City hasn’t proven it can come away with a win in those situations like Detroit did on the road against Baltimore.
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