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SNF - The Marquee Matchup of Week Six: KC vs. NE at 8:20 PM ET on NBC


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Let's See Which Defense Shows Up in Chiefs-Pats

 

By GARY GRAMLING  October 14, 2018
 
1. Regardless of what happens Sunday night, both the Patriots and Chiefs are likely going to wake up Monday morning as legitimate Super Bowl contenders. Apparently they’re going to play the game anyway.
 
You’ve seen what the Chiefs can do offensively, and Patrick Mahomes makes them more expansive than they were a year ago when they pulled down the Partiots’ collective pants in the season opener. Meanwhile, Tom Brady got Julian Edelman back last week and is getting Josh Gordon up to speed; there’s every reason to think they’re going to be one of football’s two or three best offenses over the rest of the season. They can take on a lot of different identities (spread quick-strike, deep ball, grind it out with two running backs) and New England always treats the season as a process. They get better as the year goes on, as evidenced by their .801 post-September winning percentage over the last 10 seasons.
 
So is there any reason to watch Sunday night aside from two elite teams, one led by a historically great quarter back and the other led by the most exciting young star in the NFL, in a proverbial head-on collision? How about the defenses. The Chiefs continue to struggle with the basics of tackling, and you wonder if the Patriots—if Sony Michel is in the lineup—will put the rookie behind James Develin and try to overpower this K.C. front seven. Of course, the Chiefs are also having issues on the back end, so airing it out isn’t a bad approach either. The Chiefs could get an otherworldly performance from Dee Ford (who is having a career year), Chris Jones and the Justin Houston-less pass rush. More likely, the path to success will be the defense as a whole playing much better than it has.
 
As for the Patriots, they don’t have the kind of explosive front-seven players to dominate, but they’ve looked much better than the plodding group we saw three weeks ago in a Sunday night loss at Detroit. The returns of Patrick Chung and Trey Flowers certainly helped their bend-not-break defense. One week after a shaky performance against Andrew Luck and 10 guys Luck gathered in the parking lot before the game, Mahomes presents an interesting bench mark for this unit.
Both these teams will contend due to their offenses, but the defensive units could tip the scales in January (just ask Pittsburgh). For each unit, Sunday night could serve as a good jumping off point, or it could serve as another bright and garish warning sign.
Edited by 26CornerBlitz
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  • 26CornerBlitz changed the title to SNF - The Marquee Matchup of Week Six: KC vs. NE at 8:20 PM ET on NBC

I’ll predict no offensive penalties of consequence called on the Patriots while the game is in doubt . 

1 minute ago, Fadingpain said:

1st play of game is a pass for like 13 yards.  Maybe the Bills are taking notes.

 

 

The Bills don’t know what a slant or yac is. 

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It must be nice to have a competent offense and coach that actually goes for it on 4th and 3 from mid field, and not tries the lame "let's try and draw them offsides" crap then call a TO with 1 sec on the play clock. 

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Just now, sven233 said:

The Chiefs have run like 5 plays.... All have been more creative than I saw from the Bills offense the entire game.

I was just thinking the same thing, along with how much KC is throwing the ball in general.

 

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