Should be fun on Sunday. Pats are healthy and hungry.

The Pats spanked the Chargers as home last weekend in a night game where the Chiefs lost to the Chargers at home recently. The Chiefs barely got by Baltimore. The Pats lost two late road games against Miami & Pitt. Pats lost some road games 4 months ago, and they beat the Chiefs 3 months ago.

What does all the above mean . . . could mean nothing could mean something.

In the end we just got to play the game and see who plays better on that day. Both teams need to execute. The one that does the best, will likely win on Sunday.
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I realize you need to use the Chargers game as some type of "diss" towards KC...but remember LAC led for a total of 4 seconds in the two games and are a division rival. It would like KC fans using the Miami miracle play in an attempt to say "you cant even beat Miami".

Chargers zone defense was a terrible match-up against "dink and dunk" Brady...Alex Smith was 8-0 against the Chargers too..

This is, IMO, the weakest iteration of a NE team in years going against the best version of the Chiefs in decades. Mahomes is better than Brady this season...like it or not.

"You're not in Foxborough anymore" would be a great banner for the game...
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yet here you are....:-)
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I mentioned the Chargers game as a recent point of reference that the Pats handled fairly easily a playoff team on both sides of the ball.

True the Chargers only lead at the end against KC, but I think some fans would agree, namely Chargers fans, that on KC's last drive it might of got some home cooking from the refs, or they loose by 7 not 1 to the Chargers.

Either way, agree it is just a single opponent.

We can not beat Miami and have tough times winning there as we do in Denver. Brady coughed up a fir ball in the first half and missed an opportunity for chip shot FG that would of had us up 8 at the end of the game. Yes it was one play for them to win at the end, but we did a lot of things not right and lost the game. We also looked stupid and not impressive in a few other games.

Time will tell if KC is just like Miami and Denver for the Pats.

Yes I really wish the game was in Foxboro as i would have a lot more confidence in the win. Also, Mahomes played solid on Saturday and did not dropped off from the regular season, so that is a concern for the Pats and their fans.

Yes it is one of our weakest variants in this decade against the best version of the Chiefs in a while. And yes Mahomes has had a better season than Brady, and played solid on Saturday. Altho, over this past weekend, not sure if one can say the gap is a wide as the regular season.

A few things going in the Pats favor is our health (of our three past playoff road loses we have had some key injures), and frankly have nothing to loose and likely will play loose. We will see how this translates on Sunday.
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Justin Houston didn’t play last game and you guys needed help from the refs to win by a FG. The Chiefs defense has only given up 10 points in the last 2 games. The Chiefs haven’t allowed anyone to score 30 points on them at home all year. They could rest Mahomes for the SB, let Henne play and still win by 2 TD’s
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Speaking of health...I'm not sure if you remember or not...but when you faced KC in the post-season, the Chiefs were a MASH unit...and still only lost 27-20. No Charles, Ware, Maclin..and a hobbled Houston that had surgery after the game.

I would be like you coming in this weekend with no White, Edelman, Hightower and Michel. Think on that..

You STILL haven't faced a healthy Houston since 2014...
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I don’t care if the Patriots D held some teams to low point totals to finish the year. The Colts’ D came in as #1 over the last 11 weeks or whatever. Both feasted on weak opponents. Neither is capable of shutting down KC. Especially the bend don’t break Patriots.

The Chiefs, however, are capable of shutting down NE. Their secondary is completely different than in the first game. No picking on Scandrick or Shaw this time around. Plus Houston is back and in form. If KC continues getting pressure as they’ve been, they could make it a long night for Brady, as they did for Luck and his quick pass attack.
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NE's D played well in Pittsburgh with the Steelers facing a must win. I would trust a playoff defense led by Belichick than by some Eberflus dude. This game will be decided by KC's D.
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The Pats don't really have a pass rush.

When we played the Rams they had a number of players that could rush the passer and make plays. They caused mistakes.

The first game against the Pats Mahomes had time. He started slow and was off because of his own nerves - not forced errors.

We beat the Pats when we sucked so doing it again this sunday won't be any real shock...
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Patriots don't have their most talented team but this team is still built for physical playoff football in cold weather.

Brady is 41 and 3-4 on the road in the playoffs overall which isn't a bad record considering 3 of those games were at Denver which reportedly is tough to adjust to if you aren't used to it.

KC has a great offense and its fair to say that the Patriots are not built to match up with Hill. Question from a Patriots fan perspective is whether a very good defense with some weaknesses at linebacker combined with super cold weather can slow KC down enough to give the Patriots offense a legit chance to win the game. No sane Patriots fan is expecting the Chiefs to be held to under 20 points unless the weather is just a true horror show or Chiefs suffer a key injury.

If Chiefs score 35+ points and Patriots win, I will be very surprised. I am not expecting the Patriots to score in the high 30's on the road at Arrowhead in a one game scenario for the Super Bowl in frigid weather.

Patriots with Brady have on occasion been blown out at home or on the road during the regular season but in the playoffs, all of the road losses with the possible exception of 1 have at least been competitive...with just a few plays changing the outcome.

The playoff games in which the Patriots have genuinely looked over-matched and not just lost have actually been at home and not on the road. Losses to Baltimore come to mind. Really looked outclassed.

This Patriots team doesn't have a ton of super talented players at/near the peaks of their careers like some of the Super Bowl years but it really is a deep roster that is relatively healthy.

Should be a good game. I don't blame Chiefs fans for being confident. Patriots will have to play very well to pull out a victory.
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I tend to think KC's defense and the crowd influences that will decide the game as well. I do think now that it is playoffs, one can throw Brady's track record this year against the blitz completely out the window. 4 games without his safety valve in Edelman and few games where he was off for whatever reasons but he has looked great recently once again.

Patriots have their 3-4 top running backs healthy and playing well and they haven't had that throughout the entire regular season. This kind of makes it a little tougher for a team without an all around defense to pressure him.

A great defense would in all likelihood combined with the frigid weather hold this Patriots team to below 20 points but whether the Chiefs can step it up and play great defense is a question mark.

A key to the game will be how the Patriots use Gronk. Throw a "good defender" on him and he can still win the match-up a good amount of the time but throw a very good defender on him, he will probably struggle and not be worth throwing to that much at all.

One Patriots problem is if you don't feature Gronk as a receiver on occasion, the running backs and Edelman will really take a beating against a more normal defense than what LA Chargers played.

I suspect BB tries to run the ball a little more than normal but his objective as a coach is pretty much always scoring points so he won't go too crazy in that direction unless it is working.
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I don't think the Patriots went out of their way to pressure Mahomes in the first game. While I highly doubt they will get anywhere near the consistent pressure on him that they got on Rivers, I sure do suspect they will go after him more in this game.

Pretty much any NFL post season team beating another isn't a true shock in this salary cap era.

A few crazy turnovers combined with decent matchup and probably the worst playoff team this year would have a chance of knocking off whoever is the best.

The Patriots have all of those Super Bowls since they have been consistently very good to great but they have lost to inferior teams and beaten superior teams.
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The funniest part is at most there’s one year left of tongue kissing Tom before what he has left in the tank runs out. These fools will have forgotten they have a football team up there not long after that happens! Back into obscurity.
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Pats were banged up too. We lost all of our RBs and both our OTs.

I know this is all good-natured banter but the outcomes of 2014, 2015, 2017 and October have absolutely nothing to do with Sunday. BB knows Reids offense. Reid knows BBs defense.

Sutton was DC under Edwards when he was with the Jets. Mangini (Pats DC) kept him as did Rex. Point is Sutton knows the Pats O and the Pats know the Chiefs D.

Sunday will be about mental & physical toughness and a handful of plays one team makes that the other doesn't.
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The stars had to align perfectly for NE to beat KC in Foxboro. That shit isn't happening twice and now the Chiefs are just pissed off about it.
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