Even as some see Patriots, KC, swapping identities, Chiefs have own legacy to create
As of Sunday afternoon, anyway, the Patriots-Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium is on for Monday night a day after COVID-19 positive tests on each team forced a postponement. In that spirit, back to some previously scheduled programming adapted to the moment:
When it comes to facing the Chiefs offense these days, San Francisco 49ers defensive back Richard Sherman told broadcaster Cris Collinsworth the other day, “It’s not like pick your poison; it’s just pick how you’re going to die.” That’s been the case for a couple years now, of course, since the emergence of Patrick Mahomes.
But now bolstered by a thorny defense, they’ve won their last 12 games, including the postseason run to the franchise’s first Super Bowl run in 50 years and a 3-0 start this season.
Which brings us to yet another element of the alternate reality we find ourselves in here in 2020, as stated the other day by Kyle Brandt for “Good Morning Football.”
With the Chiefs “raining fire over the league” entering their game against the Patriots initially scheduled for on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, “American needs to root for New England” so there can be a “ray of hope” for others.
As it happened, this being 2020 and all, the Chiefs didn’t beat the Patriots on Sunday. But it was just the opposite of a ray of hope for anyone after Patriots quarterback Cam Newton and Chiefs practice squad quarterback Jordan Ta’amu tested positive for COVID-19, delaying the game as further testing ensued.
If the change to Monday holds up, the Chiefs tentatively face the further challenge of playing three games in 11 days: They are scheduled to take on the Raiders at Arrowhead on Oct. 11 and then play the following Thursday night in Buffalo ... unless perhaps that can be moved to the 18th.
Maybe a stretch like that could make them appear vulnerable at a time the implication is that ramifications of COVID are all that could foil the Chiefs, who are pleased to embrace the notion of being the scourge of the league.
“Who wants to see the winners win at the end of the day? That’s our view,” defensive end Frank Clark said after the Chiefs stiff-armed the Ravens 34-20 last Monday night.
Clark then mentioned that the masses didn’t necessarily cheer for the likes of such dynasties “in their own rights” as those of the Chicago Bulls and … the Patriots.
While Clark didn’t say the glory days of the Patriots are behind them, that’s been widely insinuated entering this game. And even as further testing and uncertainty surrounds whether it indeed will be played this week, the moment still makes for a measure of that.
You wouldn’t be alone if you found yourself thinking about some kind of cosmic identity swap or changing of the guard or passing of a torch, as we got into on Thursday in our Sportsbeat Live that you also can listen to in podcast format.
Seek such symbolism, and perhaps you could find it in the Chiefs winning 23-16 at New England last season. That game came with the subplot of Mahomes quarterbacking a victory over the only team that has beaten the Chiefs twice with him at the helm.
With an even more figurative reach, you might point to Tom Brady’s visit with Mahomes after the Patriots beat the Chiefs 37-31 in overtime in the AFC Championship the season before — a loss that was more springboard than anything else for the Chiefs.
Or you could glean it from the 2019 Patriots’ late-season fizzle, including a loss to lowly Miami in the regular-season finale and to Tennessee in the playoffs a week later that recast a postseason ultimately defined by three Chiefs comebacks from double-digit deficits.
Tempting as it is to run with the concept, though, the idea of the reversal is premature and even flawed going forward.
For one thing, even with Brady in Tampa Bay, rumors of the Patriots’ demise may well be greatly exaggerated just one season removed from their last Super Bowl victory.
But for being stopped at the Seattle 1-yard line on the last play of the game, the Patriots would be 3-0 with a win over a Seahawks team that is a Super Bowl contender. Right here, right now, that looks different with Newton out, but his ability to run has infused their offense with a new energy that will remain a major factor upon his return.
Moreover, despite giving up five touchdown passes to Seattle’s Russell Wilson, the Patriots are allowing 22 points a game (the Chiefs are yielding 20) and tied for first in the league in takeaways with seven.
Most notably of all, they still are coached by Bill Belichick, every bit the defensive mastermind that Andy Reid is offensively — which helps account for why the two winningest active coaches in the NFL are 3-3 against each other since Reid came to Kansas City after the 2012 season.
In other words, even with Newton out, the Chiefs could lose this game if they’re not at their best … something the shrewd Belichick has demonstrated he can bring out in many an opponent. I figure the Chiefs will win, but I definitely don’t assume it.
Another reason to douse the torch talk, of course, is that the Chiefs haven’t remotely accomplished what the Patriots have in the Belichick era by winning six Super Bowls.
While the Chiefs have to be considered the favorite to repeat, that’s a long way from making good on a feat last accomplished by the 2003-04 Patriots. And as much as we might entertain the prospect of the Chiefs becoming the first team to go undefeated since the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the Patriots are the only franchise since the advent of the 16-game regular-season to make it unscathed into the Super Bowl — only to lose to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII.
Finally, though, there’s ample reason for Chiefs fans to reject any inferences they have assumed the role of the Patriots.
Forgettable as it turned out, let’s turn the clock back to 2009, when the Chiefs hired Scott Pioli from New England to become their general manager. With that, there was an expectation that Pioli would bring the New England method to Kansas City as if it were just some interchangeable formula or script.
“The Patriots Way is what Bill and I brought to the Patriots. … ,” Pioli said at his introductory news conference. “The Patriots Way starts with hard work and discipline and creating a culture where everyone is on the same page, everyone knows their role, everyone believes in the system and everyone does their job.”
As it happened, the Patriots Way seemed to be a lot more about the Belichick Way. Suffice to say, everyone wasn’t on the same page over the increasingly chaotic next four years. That culminated in a 2-14 2012 season and led to the hiring of Reid and the firing of Pioli to make way for new GM John Dorsey (since replaced by Brett Veach).
With that emerged what might be considered a Chiefs Way, framed by Reid’s creative and motivational brilliance and Mahomes’ infinite skills, imagination and resolve and Veach’s remarkable acumen for talent and adroit business skills.
And with that, the Chiefs have cultivated their own distinct mystique, including a certain aura of invincibility given that they’ve won 30 of their last 33 AFC West games and left Baltimore’s otherwise superb quarterback Lamar Jackson calling them the Ravens’ “Kryptonite” the other night.
So this isn’t some looming potential sequel to the Patriots’ reign. This is a unique group in a singular moment in time, a group that has its own legacy to establish and own journey to relish one game at a time seemingly for years to come.
In the meantime, there’s no need to either overstate or limit that potential in the context of the Patriots … even if beating them on now would further a case that the Chiefs are the nemesis of the NFL.
This story was originally published October 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.