2022 NFL picks, score predictions for Week 4

Kansas City Chiefs (2-1) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-1)

Sunday, October 2, 8:20PM ET

The Kansas City Chiefs were on the wrong end of one of the bigger shockers of Week 3 of the 2022 NFL season. The Chiefs went into Indianapolis to take on the seemingly hapless 0-1-1 Colts, and they got punked. Kansas City looked off on offense, especially Patrick Mahomes who was not his usual self.

Although Mahomes had the ball in the end with a chance to potentially win the game for the Chiefs, he threw an interception. If you read my bold predictions post last week, you would have seen that I actually predicted that loss for Kansas City. The Chiefs have been flirting with disaster far too much early on this season. Mahomes has put the ball in harm’s way and hasn’t been penalized for it.

That changed against the Colts and the Chiefs were exposed a little bit with some of the offensive deficiencies people had seen coming with the loss of Tyreek Hill.

Going into Week 4 with our NFL picks, we’ve got a Sunday night matchup between the two teams that were featured in the 2020-21 Super Bowl. Unfortunately, these two teams look significantly different right now. Tom Brady and the Bucs are a shell of their former selves with all of the injuries they’ve sustained at wide receiver. With no Rob Gronkowski, Brady has no safety valve offensively and his chemistry is off with the ragtag group of receivers currently at his disposal.

Mahomes, incidentally, is in a similar situation without Hill. Though Mahomes still has Travis Kelce, teams are able to key in on no. 87 and force other players to win for the Chiefs, resulting in Mahomes playing too much hero ball.

I think this game will be seriously hyped, rightfully so, but it could end up being one of the sloppier games of the Week 4 slate.

Prediction: Chiefs win 23-21