3 Reasons the Chiefs Will Blow Out the Cardinals in Week 1

Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season is here. As usual, most of the action takes place on Sunday, including an inter-conference meeting between the Kansas City Chiefs and Arizona Cardinals. FanDuel Sportsbook is backing Kansas City, listing the Chiefs as 5.5-point favorites over the Cardinals.

Any team led by a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes has the ability to put up some impressive offensive numbers. Even though the Cardinals can also score the ball better than most teams, once the Chiefs get the ball rolling, it's incredibly hard to keep up with them.

Here are three reasons why the Chiefs will blow out the Cardinals in Week 1.

Chiefs vs Cardinals Week 1

1. Cardinals Are Missing DeAndre Hopkins

The Cardinals offense takes a hit beginning this week due to No. 1 wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins serving a six-game suspension. Aside from the newly-added Marquise Brown and ageing A.J. Green, Arizona doesn't have any other credible WRs this week. Even with Mahomes learning to live life without Tyreek Hill, he still has better wideout depth than what Kyler Murray is working with for now. Hopkins has always been Murray's go-to target and even though the signal-caller has experience playing with Brown at Oklahoma, that was four years ago. Needless to say, it's going to be tough for the Hopkins-less Cardinals to match the Chiefs' offense blow-for-blow.

2. Arizona's Home Defense

Though Arizona's defense displayed moments of promise at times last year, it was downright bad at times on home soil. The Cardinals surrendered 24.5 points per game at State Farm Stadium, ranking ninth-worst in the NFL. Unfortunately, things could get worse this year. Arizona's pass rush took a hit when Chandler Jones signed with the Las Vegas Raiders this season, and there's also the fact that the team's cornerback depth is weaker than usual. Mahomes should have a lot of time in the pocket to carve up the defense and if the Cardinals' secondary can't keep up with the Chiefs' WRs, things could get ugly fast.

3. The Chiefs Are Road Warriors

Most NFL teams prefer home games, however, the Chiefs manage to find success wherever they go. Kansas City is an impressive 20-5 in its last 25 road games, with three of those losses coming by just three or fewer points. On the flip side, the Cardinals are 9-15-1 in their last home games and have lost the last five games at State Farm Stadium. Even though this is the beginning of a new season, the Chiefs must take advantage of the Cardinals' recent home failures. If Arizona doesn't get off to a strong start, Andy Reid's squad will take advantage of the situation, potentially leading to a blowout.

Devon Platana is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Devon Platana also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username PepeSilvia0. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.