Did 2 struggling teams give Seahawks the blueprint to beat the Chiefs?

The Seahawks will look to get back in the win column on Christmas Eve, but it won’t be easy as they head to Kansas City to take on the AFC West-champion Chiefs.

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For Seattle, it has struggled mightily of late, dropping four of its last five games, including a 21-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers last Thursday. For the Chiefs, they’re 10-3 and have won seven of their last eight games, including their last two.

But those last two games are part of what Seattle Sports 710 AM’s Bump and Stacy focused on during a Monday discussion when looking ahead to this weekend’s game between the Seahawks and Chiefs.

While wins and losses are ultimately what matter in the NFL, it is worth noting the Chiefs were taken to the wire by the Denver Broncos and Houston Texans over the last two weeks, both of which are among the league’s worst teams this season. The Chiefs beat the Broncos 34-28 and the Texans 30-24 in overtime.

So did those two games give the Seahawks – who are far better than both the Broncos and Texans this season – a blueprint as to how to leave Kansas City with a win on Saturday? Here’s what Michael Bumpus and Stacy Rost had to say on Monday.

“The blueprint is to hope that (star quarterback Patrick Mahomes) turns the ball over,” Bumpus said. “Three times he turned the ball over against the Denver Broncos. If you turn the ball over three times, anybody’s going to be in the game. Now he bounced back and had three touchdown passes as well, but it’s all about the turnovers.”

Mahomes threw three picks against the Broncos, allowing Denver to get back in the game and make it close late, and he also lost a fumble against the Texans. Those turnovers not only prevent Mahomes and the Chiefs from scoring, but they give the Seahawks easier chances to score.

“What you have to do is you have to make the Chiefs give you a short field. Even though the Chiefs’ defense isn’t stellar – it’s not one of the greatest in the league – but if you can score on short fields and keep applying pressure, you make good teams have to be great throughout the full game,” Bumpus said. “… So you (need to) apply pressure and make them turn the football over. You can say that in any game, but especially against the Chiefs, that’s what you do. Now, are the Hawks capable of turning the football over and forcing turnovers? I think they are in the pass game. In the run game when it comes to forcing fumbles, we haven’t seen a forced fumble in a long time.”

“There are matchup opportunities for Seattle that you can you can make a case where Seattle could come out on top,” Rost said. “The issue is obviously the Chiefs’ offense – (which) may be the best in the league as far as points per game and just putting up numbers in the passing game – against this defense. The only thing that gives me hope is knowing the Texans are pretty much the only defense worse than Seattle in a couple categories and being like, ‘If these guys did it, you have no excuse,’ because they are truly an atrocious team. I cannot stress enough how bad (the Texans) are as a team.”

And also defensively, Bumpus wants to see the Seahawks dial up some pressure with blitzes and better production from the pass rush.

“Yes, (the Chiefs) are great when it comes to throwing the football, but if there’s a strength of the Seahawks’ defense, it’s that secondary right now,” he said. “… Force Pat Mahomes to do some of these crazy throws that he does because every now and then he will turn the football over and he’s shown that the last couple of weeks. Hang around … so in the fourth quarter, there’s a chance, and then anything can happen.”

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