3 NFL Storylines to Watch in Week 14

The Wacky AFC West

Once upon a time, the 6-6 Kansas City Chiefs were actually sitting pretty at 5-0. Alex Smith was an MVP candidate. Kareem Hunt was destined for Offensive Rookie of the Year. And as a result of drumming the New England Patriots in the season opener, the Chiefs were holding the early inside track on home-field advantage throughout the playoffs as the AFC's top seed.

Meanwhile, the rest of the AFC West was floundering. The Los Angeles Chargers began the season 0-4, largely because they couldn't find someone that could kick a football with any degree of accuracy. Since then, the Chargers have used a highly-skilled defense and a resurgent Keenan Allen to go 6-2 over their last 8 games. The surge pulls them back to even at 6-6 while holding a slight edge atop the AFC West via a tie breaker.

As for the Oakland Raiders, they'll be traveling to Arrowhead this week. After starting the season with a pair of wins, Oakland went on a four-game losing streak before topping the Chiefs at home. Now 4-2 over their last six games, the Raiders are also 6-6.

Of all the games on the Sunday slate, Oakland at Kansas City has the highest over/under (48.5) according to numberFire's Matchup Heat Map. Oakland will be without Amari Cooper -- who shredded the Chiefs back in Week 7, so expect to see a lot of Michael Crabtree.

Crabtree was already a great play, but he gets even more intriguing now that cornerback Marcus Peters is suspended for his conduct late in the fourth quarter of last week's defeat to the New York Jets. This is bad news for a defense that's been embarrassed against the pass all year -- no defense has faced more air yards against them than the Chiefs.

In fact, thanks to the tools at Josh Hermsmeyer's airyards.com we can see that the average depth of target (aDOT) of their opponents is a whooping 10.5. Not only is that the highest mark in the league, only one other defense is seeing an aDOT over 9.5.