Indy @ KC The Lou Anarumo Angle

This may or may not be a valid angle. Buyer beware!!! 
Prior to being hired as DC for Indy this year, Anarumo was fired at the end of the 2024 season by the Bengals. IMO he was the scapegoat who lost his job because the front office decided to pay the offense and allow the defense to lose all of their talent to free agency. 

Anarumo's defense with the Bengals played the Chiefs and Mahomes tough and at the end of the 2021 season, they went into KC and won the AFC championship game. The next year was another AFC championship game versus the Chiefs that had a very fishy ending wherein the refs gave the Chiefs an extra down claiming that they weren't set for the play because the clock was mistakenly running and then later on in another series, a flag on a questionable personal foul put the Chiefs into field goal range for the win. The Bengals lost by 3. 

The upshot is that this Bengals defense at the time held the Chiefs into the 20s both times and Anarumo's layered zones confused  the hell out of Mahomes and Reed. 

Mahomes heaped tons of praise on Anarumo recently in the following article. Of course the Chiefs are the desperate team in this matchup and that might override this Anarumo hex that he has on the greatest offensive brain trust of our time. 

https://www.kmbc.com/article/mahomes-chiefs-colts-lou-anarumo-defense-preview/69490489

interesting angle 

Nice, I was going to start a thread about this game. I cap coordinators all the time, and have done the work on this game.

The Chiefs with Andy Reid and Mahomes have faced a Lou Anarumo defense 5 times. They've scored 31, 24, 23, 25, and 26 points. A 25.8 ppg average.

Shane Steichen as an OC has faced Steve Spagnuolo 3 times. Once with the Chargers, twice with the Eagles. He's scored 20, 30, and 35. The 35 burger was in the SB. An average of 28.33 ppg.

I was thinking(just as everyone and their momma is) that this is a do or die game for KC. They "have to win". We know how those handicaps usually go.

I'm not so sure with the coaching history and the Colts coming off a bye. The Chiefs are definitely running uphill here, off a tough loss vs a divisional opponent. 

But I also recognize the power rankings. And KC is not nearly as bad as their record shows. Luck is finally not on their side this year. And the Colts are a smidgen worse than their record shows. 

With all that said, tough place to play otr for the Colts, and outdoors. The line is kind of right at -3 I would say.

Good Luck 

valid 

I left out one game in 2020 where Steichen put up 38 vs the Chiefs in week 17. The Chiefs had the 1 seed locked up and sat starters.