Speaking of training camp, both these teams share some heated practice time together every year, and this year was no different other than there was only just one fight to break up.  There were words though, and thanks to Kansas City’s rookie defensive end Turk McBride, nice motivational words.  As reported earlier, during a broadcast of the HBO Series "Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Kansas City Chiefs," rookie defensive end Turk McBride said to a veteran teammate, "Their tackles are terrible. Everyone is soft."  Left tackle Bryant McKinnie at the time responded with an, “Oh, please.”  Later he was asked if that comment will motivate his unit, McKinnie said, "I don’t know what they’re going to do. But I know what I’m going to do."  You know this has been on Bryant’s mind all week.

Coming off a poor performance in Detroit from the entire line and moving from one noisy location to another, I see a motivated and better coached unit coming into this matchup.  Also, with the most likely start of Kelly Holcomb, I see more opportunities for each of these linemen to do more of what they love, power block for the run.  Offensive linemen salivate for the moment they get to explode onto a defensive lineman or linebacker, and with what should be a heavily run focused game plan featuring Adrian Peterson and more Adrian Peterson, look for pancake block stats to go up.

Adrian Peterson should be the feature back even if Chester Taylor is deemed fit enough to play.  If Taylor is not, and it will be a game time decision, Mewelde Moore will be AP’s backup just like last week.  Peterson so far this season leads the Vikings in both rushing and passing and should continue in that role against the Chiefs.

Asking; why does a runningback leading us in team receiving stats?  This points towards the poor play from our receivers last week and the many dropped balls.  Will somebody please step up and claim the true #1 receiver role.  The one guy that can be counted upon not to drop the ball, to turn up field when he has it, and to help his QB when he doesn’t?  The Vikings receiver corps is the weakest point of what should be a very strong offense, and against a weak Kansas City team on a beautiful day, should be able to step up and make some plays.  Time for excuses has passed fellas, receive!

Enough focusing on the offensive side of the ball (no pun intended…really!).  The Chiefs love to pound the ball with Larry Johnson.  He is used to run the ball over 400 times a season and for over 1700 yards in their game plan.  He loves running downhill between the tackles, but in two games so far only has a total of 98 yards.  He is due for a breakout game and is hoping for it in their home opener, but the Vikes have other plans.  He will be running straight into the heart of the best defense against the run in the league last year, straight into the Williams Wall.  (For all you trivia buffs, this will be Pat Williams’ 100th NFL start and he certainly hopes to make it memorable.)  Behind Kevin and Pat Williams expect to see EJ Henderson leading the linebackers in gap filling tackles.  The chiefs are playing into our defense’s strength.  This will be the best match up to watch and will dictate the end result in this game.

Noise and heat will ally themselves with the Chiefs, as well as a lousy road record against AFC opponents as of late (1-11), but this is a new team with a little bit of an attitude building.  Not getting enough respect.  They will take another step further to earning it again on the field.  Expect the defense to rock and the offense to show and steal the thunder from the Chiefs opener.

SKOL Vikings!