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Originally Posted by stevegroganfan
Exactly like NE, Philly was 13-3 that regular season with a +162 point differential. They were a great team that had dominated MN 38-7 in NFC championship game.
Philly's offensive line was great that year like they have been this year. It enabled Carson Wentz to be leading MVP candidate before he went down and Foles to win Super Bowl MVP. And New England's defense couldn't pressure him, secondary was compromised and front 7 just wasn't tough enough without Hightower.
Trying to beat both NE and Philly in 2017 would be a tough task for rookie Mahomes/KC. NE's team was markedly better in 2017 than 2018 even if their defense wasn't at its best in playoffs.
The big opportunity the Chiefs missed with Mahomes on the team was 2018 since I can't picture the 2018 injured Rams beating the Chiefs in sB. That NE team was not that great by SB standards. In terms of talent, 2nd weakest SB winning Patriots team and much weaker than 2010 Patriots that lost in first round of playoffs. In a different sort of way, NE matched up well with KC like last years Cincy team but that 2018 NE team played its A- game and Chiefs played their B game.
But how you play on any given Sunday and matchups matters.
A bunch of teams that can do what ifs. Rams probably beat Patriots in 2018 SB if they had Cooper Kupp who was having a very good year before injury and their running back was healthy. Tampa probably repeats in easier fashion last year if every team had all of their players full healthy.
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I know it was early in the year, but 2017 NE was blown out at home by Alex Smith. And they didn’t exactly face murderers row in the playoffs (Mariota and Bortles at home, then Foles). Hard for me to believe that team was markedly better than one that swept Mahomes and one of the best offenses in NFL history.