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Welcome to season 7, episode 6 of the unconventional presentation, a serious but light look, tinged with nostalgia for the weekly Patriots game.
This is the one we were waiting for. The 5-0 Chiefs, led by first-year defenseman Patrick Mahomes in the quarterback, head to Foxborough to face the Patriots, who rallied over .500 with last Thursday's Colts win.
The October games do not become much more relevant than that. With a defeat, the Patriots would suffer their third loss of the season in Week 6. Last season, they lost three games all year and season before two. The Patriots have not lost three of their first six games since the 2012 season. They went 9-1 the rest of the way, but their season is over against the Ravens in the AFC championship game.
A win would confirm the improvement over the past two weeks in the Dolphins and Colts and could even make Patriots the AFC favorite. Do not forget that the Chiefs started last season at 5-0, then lost six of their next seven, including the modest Jets, the lousy Raiders and the derisory giants. The main difference is that the king of the Alex Smith checkdown was a quarter of the Chiefs last year. They are now led by Mahomes, who has been both electrifying and effective in his first season as a starter – but is he ready to compete with Brady in the shootout at the 1993 Bledsoe against Marino? I can not wait to find out. Better to prepare a thriller, guys.
Start, Gostkowski, and let's start this one. . .
THREE PLAYERS I WANT TO WATCH ARE NOT NAMED TOM BRADY
Patrick MahomesSix starts in the career, the second-year Chiefs quarterback is on a very short list of the most exciting players in the league – and he is probably at the top of the list. In five games this season in which the Chiefs averaged 35 points per game, Mahomes racked up 302 yards per game, 14 touchdowns, against just two interceptions, with a completion percentage of 63.6. Oh, and he also had 66 yards and two touchdowns. Damn it, wait until you see what he can do when he still has some representatives. It's not just that he's showing superstars. He has a sneaky mobility, a cannon for an arm and can place the football in any place with incredible accuracy. (His father is the former Red Sox pitcher, Pat Mahomes, let's just say that he draws his precision from his mother.I will remove this joke forever.) He also has the voice of Kermit the frog, well that no one has heard it singing "Rainbow Connection" & # 39; again. Go ahead and encourage him to turn into Tyler Palko on Sunday. But he's one of the friendliest young players of all time.
Stephon Gilmore: Honestly, I do not know at all how the Patriots will try to slow down this fast, deep and creative attack by the Chiefs. I'm not saying they can not do it. I just do not know how they would, unless the NFL allows a single-game exemption to strike Chiefs receivers such as Ty Law, Tebucky Jones and their friends on a memorable night. I know the following: If the Patriots were to deliver to Mahomes and the Chiefs' talented players their first fight against the frustration of the season, Gilmore will be an important factor. After Trey Flowers, he is probably closest to the Patriots with a leading talent for their defense. For me, his slow start to the year made him very underestimated. This is a terrific cornerback, which Bill Belichick acknowledged with a little more honesty than he wanted to reveal when he admitted that Gilmore was playing better than last year. It must be at its best Sunday. He is usually.
Josh Gordon: It's tempting to say he's the wild card in this game, especially after Randy Moss-ish's adaptation to Tom Brady's pass last Thursday against the Colts, which earned him his first shot touched as a Patriot. But can he be a joker if the Patriots are relying on him now? The Patriots offense is now complete: Julian Edelman is back, Rob Gronkowski, other players, Chris Hogan and Phillip Dorsett, and Sony Michel and James White form an electric tandem. But to live up to the Chiefs' firepower, the Patriots could also demand another big step ahead of Gordon in his third game as Patriot. His acclimatization was smooth, but Mike Giardi of the NFL Network reported Friday that he had taken two bad routes against the Colts. Tom Brady will not tolerate it long, but Gordon is a unique case. Patriots need him to eliminate mistakes because they need him, not at the line.
GRIEVANCE OF THE WEEK
The grievance of the week comes in the form of an interlude between the tale and the hour. As one great philosopher Homer Simpson once said, I love stories. . .
That's how I grew up in the late '70s and early' 80s and was fascinated by the Air Coryell, the San Diego Chargers, especially the John Jefferson receiver, as well as by the tight wing Kellen Winslow. Why? If you remember, you do not have to know why. They were almost always on national television (and sometimes at that time, the Patriots were blackened locally), and played around 4 pm. NBC game in the San Diego sun on the covered pitch of the Jack Murphy Stadium. For a child who was barely 10 years old and was freezing his LL Bean boots in New England, it was a seductive and alien scene. I mean, lightning helmets! Who could do more?
I returned to the Patriots shortly after the Chargers transferred Jefferson to the Packers and future Hall of Fame member Fred Dean to the Niners and had my first taste of cynicism. Stanley Morgan became my new favorite, and then, for whatever reason, Derrick Ramsey. But I clung to my argument in an argument I always had with my perplexed father: Kellen Winslow was a much better opponent than his guy, Russ Francis.
His case was that Winslow was just a receiver, while Francis was doing everything – he could catch, run, and of course block. This is a case that I have come to understand more as I get older, although Winslow had an unprecedented performance in an epic playoff match between the Chargers and the Dolphins in January 1982 and ended up becoming the Hall of Fame. Francis was an extremely tight player – Howard Cosell had dubbed him the "All-World" Monday night of football, a stage where he was still at his best – and would probably have had a township deal himself. He had been laser-focused on football or played in an offense that used him more.
In any case, they were both great. The same can be said of Rob Gronkowski, the Patriots, and Travis Kelce, the Chiefs, who have been the subject of much debate this week over who is a better player. It's an easy argument, but honestly, it's not an argument that should exist at all. Because here's the thing: Kelce has a facsimile of this Winslow skill set. He is a great receiver. And Gronkowski? It's what you get when a player possesses the skills of Winslow and Francis, with lots of mixed vintage Mark Bavaro.
Gronk and Kelce are both excellent players. They play the same position. But let's stop comparing them. There has never been another tight end like Gronk. Kelce is an excellent receiver. Gronk is excellent in this field and in everything the job requires.
PREDICTION OR ANDY REID IS THE SECOND COACH OF FOOTBALL, is not it?
Bill Belichick, of course, is the best football coach. But his first reputation was based mainly on his defensive acuity, mainly for the game plan that the Giants had used to slow down Jim Kelly and the Buffalo Bills Super Bowl XXV. This reputation still exists, and it should. The Patriots have been in the top 10 of the lowest number of points allowed each year since 2012 and finished first in the league in 2016. They do not have enough credit for making as many key stops in the Super Bowl against the Seahawks and Falcons. anecdotally, it looks like it's been years since they have no truly dominant defense, we're going to-win-this-one-for-y-Tom. And even if they are 10th in the points allocated this year, they are 16th in all yards allowed, and it is difficult to consider this smart group but barely able to follow the Chiefs. The Patriots will have to manage the ball effectively and regularly convert to the third try. Their best hope is that Mahomes – who, again, has only six years in his career – sees something unknown or feels the weight of the first big game of his career and makes the kind of mistakes he has was accused of having committed Texas Tech when he launched 25 picks in 25 games over his last two seasons. It seems like a lot to ask this Patriots defense against such a dynamic and versatile offensive team. If it's time for Belichick, in collaboration with Brian Flores, to add another clip to his highlighter band Defensive Genius, that's it. I just can not convince myself that this will be the case. Chiefs 41, patriots 38.
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