Chiefs 20, Titans 17 (Titans covered +14, U 45)

Pregame: The second of primetime games this week will also be one with a huge double-digit underdog, though the Titans will at least likely have their regular starting quarterback under center again. Malik Willis was mainly kept under wraps in his spot starter in place of Ryan Tannehill last week, carrying the ball (5) nearly as many times as he completed passes (6). However, Tannehill is expected to practice and return against the Chiefs. The biggest fantasy story last week was Derrick Henry joining OJ Simpson and Adrian Peterson with his sixth career game of 200-plus rushing yards, and now he gets a Chiefs defense that has surrendered the fifth-most fantasy points to opposing running backs.

The Chiefs expect to have newly-acquired WR Kadarius Toney on the field for his red and gold debut. Though Toney is unlikely to be fantasy relevant right away, his explosiveness is something that this receiver room has sorely lacked since Tyreek Hill’s departure. It’s something to monitor closely as his talent paired with Patrick Mahomes’ arm could be a lethal combination in fantasy down the stretch. Defensively, first-round draft pick CB Trent McDuffie is also finally recovered from his hamstring ailment that has kept him off the field since the season opener.

Postgame: When you’re the football Houdini, sometimes you can make a few gaffes and still pull a rabbit out of a hat at the end. Mahomes rolled the dice on a number of short-area throws, one of which was a bobbled lob to Travis Kelce in the third quarter that was picked off by CB Roger McCreary and seemed to be a decisive momentum shift for the Titans. Tennessee had really dominated up to that point, pounding the Chiefs into submission with a highly-effective power run game in which Derrick Henry seemed to run through anything and everything in front of him. A late Mahomes rushing score knotted things up and Harrison Butker kicked a 28-yard chip shot field goal to ice things in overtime. In retrospect, the double-digit line on this one was way too aggressive, and the Titans had a legitimate shot to pull off the upset if not for late Mahomes magic.

Titans

RB

Pregame: Derrick Henry is on an absolute roll, finishing no worse than RB7 in four of his past five games. Perhaps the most impressive part of it is that he’s playing at an elite level right now on a far from elite offense – the Titans have scored the sixth-fewest points in the league through eight weeks. A big part of Henry’s success is that Tennessee fields the sixth-best graded run blocking unit according to PFF. He’ll have another great opportunity in Kansas City this week — the Chiefs are dead last in the NFL in team run stop win rate.

Postgame: Henry (17-115-2 rushing, 23.5 total fantasy points) was an unstoppable freight train yet again, putting together his fifth-straight century mark in rushing yards to tie a career-best streak he set in 2021. There simply seemed to be no real way of the Chiefs defenders stopping him in the first half when he rumbled for 92 yards, only slowing him down a little. The second half was much more successful and forced the Titans to try to spark some offense through rookie QB Malik Willis. Despite the far less dominant second half from Henry, the combined effort allowed him to leapfrog Nick Chubb (on bye) as fantasy’s overall RB2. Henry will have some beatable matchups in the next two weeks against the Broncos and Packers.

WR

Pregame: After briefly flashing with a couple of double-digit fantasy point games, Robert Woods has reverted back to a low floor with under 38 receiving yards in four straight. His 22.5% target share on a run-first team just isn’t going to allow him to be anything more than a desperation PPR flex during bye weeks. He’s become a much better real life player than fantasy asset since departing LA.

Postgame: In one of the strangest receiving box scores you will ever see out of a professional football team in 2022, the Titans recorded a total of five catches all game with three of them coming from tight ends (Chig Okonkwo, Austin Hooper) and the other two from running backs (Hassan Haskins, Dontrell Hilliard). That’s right, not a single wide receiver caught a ball, as Robert Woods went 0-for-2 while other wideouts were only targeted once. If you listen to former star Titans wideout A.J. Brown, there was a pretty simple three-word answer for why that happened. Anyways, this game was further proof that the Titans remain a fantasy graveyard for receiving.

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Chiefs

QB

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