After beating the Los Angeles Chargers 41-28 in their AFC divisional matchup, the New England Patriots earned a trip to the AFC Championship where they’ll face the Kansas City Chiefs and their explosive offense at Arrowhead Stadium.
In their eighth straight AFC title game, the Patriots will face the challenge of going against arguably the hottest offense in all of football, led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Although the Patriots already defeated the Chiefs this season that game was played at Foxboro and the result was a narrow 43-40 victory that was decided with a Steven Gostkowski 28-yard field goal kick in the waning moments of the game.
Since the Pats were undefeated at Gillette Stadium this season it’s a good thing for the Chiefs that this game will take place at Arrowhead, where they went 7-1.
The Chiefs have enjoyed the luxury of having a high-powered offense all season long despite the loss of running back Kareem Hunt, and if the Patriots want to win, they’ll need to find a way to keep pace with the Chiefs on the scoreboard once again.
The Patriots managed to defeat the Chiefs back in Week six thanks in part to the two interceptions that Mahomes had in that game, and if the Chiefs want to win, he’ll have to limit those mistakes on Sunday.
It’s up to the Patriots to make sure that he doesn’t if they want to earn another trip to the Super Bowl. The Patriots must find a way to keep that pressure on Mahomes all game long and force him to make errors.
As exciting a player that he is, Mahomes has to be patient and control his impulses to avoid interceptions and turnovers in general. Against the Patriots he can’t run around and force the ball into double coverage in the red zone because it will most likely lead to the Patriots putting up points on the board.
Mahomes’ decision making in clutch situations will be the difference in this game because it will not only present the Patriots with additional scoring opportunities but most importantly they will represent Chiefs’ scoring opportunities where they couldn’t capitalize and put their own points on the board.
