The Kansas City Chiefs have a crucial matchup against the streaking Houston Texans on Sunday. And Stephen A. Smith sees a significantly exploitable weakness within the defending AFC champions.

During Wednesday’s episode of ESPN’s First Take, he pointed to the porousness of the offensive line as an area of concern against a defense that sacked Josh Allen a career-high eight times. And he had precedents in the Chiefs’ Super Bowl losses to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Philadelphia Eagles:

“I’ve seen them send three [rushers] at quarterbacks and get to him. Three. Not even four. And I’m looking at the Chiefs right now. Trey Smith is out. Josh Simmons, out. Jawaan Taylor, out. … That seems to be the one thing that Andy Reid is ill-equipped to overcome.”

He also warned that the Texans are still a dark horse despite their pedestrian 7-5 record because of their “special” defense, which, to him, is unlike anything else he has seen recently:

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“The way these brothers hunt… I have total faith in their defense. … I believe they got a chance to still take the South, and I believe that Houston is the team to watch in the AFC.”

On the other side of the ball, the offensive line, which has been a source of weakness, especially in this post-Laremy Tunsil era, has been regaining its form lately. And head coach mainly attributed it to the adjustments made by offensive coordinator Nick Caley’s staff:

“They’ve done a really good job of really emphasizing and walking through the pressure looks that we’ll see. Credit to the players (too), they executed it the right way. I think (running back) Woody (Marks) has stepped up and done a really nice job in protection.”

Chiefs HC Andy Reid confident of victory vs. Texans

Andy Reid, however, only embraces this must-win matchup against the Texans. During a virtual presser on Monday, he said about whether the Chiefs could win this and the next four games and make the playoffs:

“I believe that. I’m telling you, we’re going to go after it every game. … We’re going to try and tickle your tonsils on every play, every game. That’s the attitude that we’re coming in with, and you let the chips fall where they may.”

Kickoff for the game is at 7:20 pm CT on NBC.