KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Season-opening games can be unpredictable affairs. The last two for the Kansas City Chiefs under coach Andy Reid are good examples of that.
The Chiefs won an unexpectedly lopsided game at the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2013 and then were blown out at home last year by the Tennessee Titans.
The Chiefs looked ready to play against Jacksonville and hopelessly out of sorts against the Titans. They’ll probably be somewhere in between on Sunday against the Texans in Houston but in a season-opener, so nobody knows what to expect.
Things might be more predictable than they have been in the past two years, as each team brings the coaching staff they had last season. That hasn’t been the case in either of the last two seasons.
In Jacksonville in 2013, both teams were in their first season with their coaches, the Chiefs with Reid and the Jaguars with Gus Bradley. Last year, Tennessee had a new coach in Ken Whisenhunt.
“They’re very different, especially if you’re playing a team that has a coaching change," quarterback Alex Smith said. “There is maybe an advantage there for them that you don’t know what new stuff they have. You’re looking at different teams’ tape and things like that and that’s hard and difficult to do."
This year, with Reid still in place for the Chiefs and Bill O’Brien in his second season with the Texans, neither team will have that element of surprise.
Unless they do, of course. They might, because it’s the season opener.
“We have film to look at from last year," Smith said. “From that standpoint, there’s probably not as much unknown. But it’s the season opener. They’ve had all offseason to put some new things in. So you always have to be ready for some wrinkles."