The Patriots travel to Kansas City today to take on the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. It will be cold and it will be loud during the Patriots eighth straight trip to the AFC Championship. Both teams made the “hot teams” look “not so hot” last weekend as the Chiefs took down the Colts in the snow and the Pats, of course, dominated the Chargers. Here are three stats to look for in this week 6 rematch.
13-2
Tom Brady is 13-2 in games played in inclement weather. He is also 24-4 in games played below 30 degrees, according to CBS Sports. Weather Tom Brady wears his wetsuit or one of Under Armour’s many choices of Coldgear, Pats Nation can count on him being mentally ready as well.
2-3
When playing on the road during Championship Weekend, Brady is 2-3, but all three of those losses came to teams who had Peyton Manning under center. Overall on the road in the postseason he is 3-4 with 251.7 passing yards per game, according to 247 sports. This year is different though, as Belichick is known to be very good against young quarterbacks, and that’s exactly what the Chiefs have in Mahomes.
35.3
The Chiefs were the League’s #1 scoring offense this season with 35.3 points per game. They put up 40 on a Pats defense that was clearly not the same defense as we saw last week, but nevertheless, they can learn a lot from Week 6. One thing the Pats cannot do is give up the big play, as Kareem Hunt and Tyreek Hill scored a 67-yard and 75-yard touchdown respectively. Hunt obviously is not with team anymore, but Hill and TE Travis Kelce are threats in the passing game that Belichick and defacto DC Brian Flores are certainly gameplanning for.
This showdown for a spot in Superbowl LIII will most likely not be as high scoring as week 6, due to the weather, but the Patriots have an Edelman who isn’t in only his second week of the season, a James White who is is more rested than he probably was in week 6 and, like Edelman, a different animal in the playoffs as they both climbed the record books last week, and a healthy Brady who is as motivated as ever.
We’ll see it all go down tonight at 6:40 P.M. on CBS and 98.5 The Sports Hub.
-Johnny Maffei is a Staff Writer for Full Press Coverage Sports Media and covers the New England Patriots. Follow him on Twitter @JohnnyBSBL4
