Championship game this Sunday when they travel to Arrowhead Stadium to take on the Kansas City Chiefs. While the Patriots have been very good against AFC teams over the Bill Belichick era White Devin McCourty Jerseys , the Andy Reid-led Chiefs have proven to be a worthy matchup.Including the playoffs, the Patriots are 2-2 against the Chiefs since Reid took over as head coach in 2013, handing the Patriots a couple of embarrassing blowout losses in the “Dynasty is done” game, as well as the 2017 season opener. Both times, New England surrendered 40+ points — just like they did during their 43-40 victory earlier this season.So what can be done to limit Kansas City’s offensive success this time around? Let’s take a look at the film to find out.What we can learn from the last matchupThe Patriots actually held up really well in the first half of their week six matchup with the Chiefs. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes struggled to the tune of two interceptions and the New England defense locked down in the red zone, holding Kansas City to only 9 points on three field goals. However, where the Patriots really struggled is with the big plays and the running backs out of the backfield. Contrary to what Stephen A. Smith said on Friday, Kareem Hunt won’t play this week. But his replacement, Damien Williams, was a former third down back in Miami and should be capable of the same route tree.Once a team that was regularly burned by vertical routes by running backs, the Patriots (and Kyle Van Noy specifically) have been much improved this year. That 67-yard touchdown catch by Hunt was the longest pass New England allowed to a running back this season, with the second highest being “only” 24 yards. But that route is a staple of the Chiefs offense and the Patriots should expect at least one or two shots deep. In terms of personnel, the Patriots should be able to stick with their sub defense throughout the entire game, barring heavy goal-line personnel situations. The Patriots never had to play base in week six as the Pats lined up in either dime, nickel or 3-safety nickel against 11, 12, and 21 personnel, which make up about 93% of the Chiefs’ offensive formations. Linebacker Elandon Roberts is honestly a terrible matchup for this Chiefs offense because he can’t really cover tight end Travis Kelce or the running back. I would expect a heavy dose of 4-2-5 nickel and 3-2-6 dime on Sunday. Spy Mahomes in man and disguise pressurePatrick Mahomes, a lock to win the MVP this season, is a second year player and first year starter that already looks like a complete player. If there’s a weakness in Mahomes’ game at this point in his career, the only glaring one that I can pinpoint right now is his inexperience when dealing with disguised pressure and Cover 0 blitzes. The Patriots have featured their “amoeba” front with one or even zero lineman with their hand in the ground in obvious passing situations. Mahomes struggled to identify the pressure in their earlier matchup.Even when not in their amoeba front, fake linebacker blitzes confounded Mahomes and his decision making was poor throughout the 1st half.The Cover 0 blitz was also a major part of the game plan. With Stephon Gilmore eliminating Sammy Watkins Devin McCourty Jerseys 2019 , and therefore half of the field, the Patriots were able to send all-out pressure at times and force inaccurate throws. Mixing fake pressures and real all-out pressures should keep the Chiefs offense and protection scheme off balance for most of the game. With J.C. Jackson in for Eric Rowe, the secondary is also undoubtably better than the group that the Patriots trotted out in October.Every game, Mahomes makes a few insane throws that no one else can make. And most of the time, these are throws from outside the pocket or after he buys more time with his legs. Fellow Pulpiteer Brian Phillips has already extolled the positives of utilizing press-man coverage, but I would like to add that the Patriots should spy him whenever they don’t blitz.I believe in Gilmore, Jackson, Jason McCourty and Patrick Chung in man coverage, but it’s unrealistic to expect them to cover the receivers for an extensive period of time. The Patriots need to have a guy that can meet Mahomes immediately if he leaves the pocket. The Chiefs were forced to start Jordan Devey for the week six matchup, and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, fresh off of IR, is a massive upgrade.Trail/bracket Tyreek Hill and play specific matchups based on pressureI’m seen many different ideas suggested about how to combat the dangerous Chiefs receiving group. While man-coverage usually means that a receiver shadows a guy for the entire game, I think that the Patriots should consider changing up matchups based on the pressure for the play.For example, when the Patriots are only planning on rushing four in a vanilla man defense, I would recommend Gilmore on Hill in trail technique with a guy over top and man defense by J.C. Jackson on Watkins and Jason McCourty on Chris Conley, as well as by Chung and Devin McCourty. However, when the Patriots plan to either blitz or disguise pressure, I would put Gilmore on Watkins, Jackson on Conley and the McCourty brothers on Hill in press-man.My rationale is largely based on the play that I highlighted before in the previous section. Let’s take a look at it again:If pressure comes quickly, either through a blitz or a disguised pressure, Mahomes isn’t going to be able to allow a deep route to develop and would have to get the ball out early. That pretty much eliminates the most dangerous part of Hill’s route tree, and Gilmore can eliminate Watkins’ half of the field White Isaiah Wynn Jerseys , who remains an incredibly overrated wide receiver despite President Trump’s approval. When Watkins was healthy this year, him and Hill very rarely lined up on the same half of the field. External factors: make Andy Reid mess up the clockFor the most part, Andy Reid is an excellent coach who also has an excellent coaching tree. But he’s still an absolutely terrible coach when it comes to managing timeouts and the clock in general. For the life of me, I cannot understand why he has never hired a clock expert or special consultant to eliminate pretty much the only glaring weakness in his coaching. Mahomes is excellent, but still inexperienced. The Patriots must confuse him with defensive looks at the line of scrimmage and force Andy Reid to burn stupid timeouts. In terms of the weather, since I wrote my offensive writeup on Thursday, the forecast has improved to the point where the temperature will be merely “cold” instead of arctic blast. If the 20-something projected temperature really does hold up, the biggest factor would be the wind, not the temperature. Wind greatly impacts the passing game, and at the moment it’s projected for gusts up to 10-15 mph. This favors the Patriots, who have a more reliable running game to lean on if the passing is impacted. Overall, I think that this Patriots defense is far and away better than the unit that they put out in week six when J.C. Jackson was a healthy scratch. The defensive line has improved and gained confidence, while the Chiefs lost a top-5 three-down running back in Kareem Hunt. I’ll mark the Chiefs down for 30 points. That puts my final score prediction at 34-30 Patriots. ATLANTA (AP) — The guys from LA seemed to enjoy the spectacle.The silly questions. The ridiculous antics. The carnival-like atmosphere.Why wouldn’t they?It’s all new to most of them.“I’m 37 years old and I’m big-eyed right now,” said offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth, the oldest player on the Los Angeles Rams. “This is amazing. It’s something that excites you and makes you realize how special this game is.”For the other guys at Super Bowl Media Night, there might as well have been a collective yawn.The New England Patriots have been through it all before.Over and over again.Bill Belichick looked out on the assembled media — sprinkled with an array of comics, TV personalities and riff-raff — with his usual disdain.Tom Brady smiled at all the right times but might as well have been on auto-pilot.It will be interesting to see how it all plays out next Sunday.Will the brash young Rams — with a sweatsuit-wearing coach, Sean McVay, who is half Belichick’s age and a quarterback, Jared Goff, who doesn’t remember Brady’s first Super Bowl because, well Isaiah Wynn Jerseys 2019 , he was only 7 years old the time — find themselves overwhelmed on the big stage?Are the wily ol’ Patriots — making their ninth Super Bowl appearance in 18 seasons and already possessing enough rings to fill out an entire hand — simply too experienced to slip up against a team that has virtually no track record at this time of year to fall back on?“Probably throughout the week, it gives them an advantage,” Whitworth conceded. “They kind of know this week. They know when things are a little anxious, when to kind of, hey, turn it on and get ready to play. They probably have a process and a plan for the week.“But you know what?” he quickly added. “I’m just a firm believer that when you get out there and you snap that football, at some point the nerves are going to go away. You’re going to have to settle in and be the team you are.”Those who are quick to declare that the Rams are just happy to be here, perhaps after watching McVay toss balls toward a kid hoisted onto an adult’s shoulders and wearing a goalpost-shaped hat, might want to consider all they’ve been through.A season ago, they suddenly emerged as one of the NFL’s most exciting young teams, improving from 4-12 in 2016 — their first season back in Los Angeles after two decades in St. Louis — to 11-5 and a division championship. Then, in the first-round of the playoffs, they were upset at the Coliseum by the Atlanta Falcons.“We felt like we could’ve made it (to the Super Bowl) last year,” said John Johnson III, the Rams’ second-year safety. “We were really disappointed.”This season, Los Angeles stared down a pair of off-the-field tragedies without batting an eye. There were the wildfires that raged in Southern California, forcing them to cancel a practice and creating some anxious moments for those closest to them. There was a mass shooting that claimed 13 lives at a bar not far from their Thousand Oaks training base.They also spent a week training in Colorado Springs, preparing to play a game in the high altitude of Mexico City, only to have that contest moved back to Los Angeles on short notice because of poor field conditions at Estadio Azteca.“It was like one thing after another that we can’t control,” Whitworth said. “We really had to just settle in — even though we were worried about our families and our friends and people around us — and just play football.”They went 13-3 to capture another division title and a first-round bye. They knocked off the Dallas Cowboys for the franchise’s first playoff victory in 14 years. Then, playing in one of the league’s most hostile road environments, they rallied from an early 13-point deficit to beat the New Orleans Saints in overtime.Sure White Sony Michel Jerseys , the Rams needed a blown call in the closing minutes of regulation just to get to overtime. But considering all they had been through, there was probably a bit of karma in that outcome.Now, they face the ultimate test.Belichick, Brady and the Super Bowl-tested Patriots.New England is not unbeatable, of course. They’ve actually lost three of those eight previous Super Bowls, and every single one has been a nail-biter, the average margin barely more than four points.But the Patriots carry themselves with a haughty aura that they’ve more than earned. A team that shows the least bit of timidity or uncertainty will likely find itself beaten before taking the field. Even with all those titles on their resume, Belichick and Brady seem as driven as ever.With his gruff-meter turned up to full blast and wearing a dark suit that would’ve worked just fine at a funeral, Belichick scoffed at a reporter who questioned, innocently enough, how he managed to avoid burnout. He brushed off a wide range of queries with his standard “I’m only focused on this game” retort. He refused to play along with any attempts to crack his grim veneer.When someone from the TV show “Extra” asked him to pick a random question from a helmet, Belichick reluctantly grabbed a slip of paper that read, “Who is Adam Levine married to?”The coach tossed it aside with disdain.“Ask me a football question,” Belichick demanded.Yep, the Patriots have been through it all before.We’ll see if that makes a difference comes Sunday.“I think experience helps. But I don’t think it will be the deciding factor. Yeah, they’ve been to this game a lot. But they haven’t played this team,” Johnson said, looking around at a group that has come so far.“Ever.”