Kansas City at New England

Overtime Heroics Editorial

2103 days ago

The Kansas City Chiefs will be in Foxborough on Sunday to play the New England Patriots. As to date, the Chiefs are the top team in the AFC West with Oakland behind them, but not nearly as close. The Patriots are top of the AFC East, but the Buffalo Bills are not too far behind them now. I feel that from this point on going into week 14 the Patriots are going to have win and Buffalo will have to lose to keep the Pats on top. At a glance besides playing the Patriots and the Jets, Buffalo has the Ravens and the Steelers to face. That might help out the Pats in the long run because all the Patriots have left after this game against the Chiefs is the Bills and Miami.

However, Let’s Start by Talking About the game on Sunday – Kansas City vs New England

The Chiefs and the Patriots usually don’t meet until the playoffs. So this is an unusual game for both teams. However, depending on how each team plays to end of the regular season they could have a rematch in the playoffs.

How Kansas City matches up with the Patriots:

Running Game

Kansas City allows 141.3 yards per game on the ground, which ranks 30th in the NFL. So the Patriots may have an edge and use Sony Michel and James White for long yardage and Brandon Bolden along with Rex Burkhead for short ones.

The running game for Kansas City will be tough against the Patriots D. The Chiefs average just 94 yards on the ground, which is 24th in the league. The Patriots’ front seven appears to have straightened out some of the issues it had earlier in the season containing the run.

In the Air

Looking to the passing game this is where Kansas City’s defense wakes up and stops the play. The Chiefs allow 230.8 yards per game through the air, which ranks smack dab in the middle of the league at 16th overall. Tom Brady needs someone other than Julian Edelman to step up, and thus far that hasn’t happened with any level of consistency.

It is predicted that the Patriots’ D will have a problem against the passing game with the Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes is another running QB. So the defense has to be ready for that. Despite injuries, Mahomes has been quite effective with 20 touchdowns against just two picks. And unlike Brady, he has a number of options to chose from to complete a pass.

Special Teams

Well without a kicker, it is uncertain how the Patriots special teams are going to do. We can only hope as Pat fans that the rest of their special team players can stop the ball at the 1-yard line. I’m sure that Bellichick will have a kicker by Sunday. The Chiefs have Harrison Butker, who has missed just four of his 29 field goals this season, three of which came from beyond 50. So it will be interesting to see how this unfolds.