So what ‘thing’ will Belichick try and take away from the Chiefs offense?

[Deberg_1990]

We all know he’s the best at taking away a certain weapon on an opponents offense. What weapon does he try and defuse on the Chiefs?

Keeping Mahomes in the pocket?

Tyreek Hill?

Kelce?

Watkins?

D Williams?

Conley?

Thoughts.....

[suzzer99]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Gotta consider the combination of 'want to' and 'able to'.

Look - the Pats can get all gung-ho about 'taking away' Tyreek Hill all they want, but that's gonna be a Pyrrhic victory for them.

JC Jackson is a revelation and a hell of a find for them. But y'know, there's a lot of Charvarious Ward in him as well and if you asked me if I'd be comfortable telling Ward - "okay, Tyreek Hill is yours, go get 'em"...uh, no.

And so that leaves them sending Gilmore out there to cover him and that's where the Pyrrhic element comes into play. If they really want to take Gilmore, who's really capable of shutting down his entire side if they use him that way, and have him wear himself slick chasing Tyreek Hill all over the field --- okay. Have fun with that. But the jet actions, long crossers and downfield routes are going to take a lot of piss of out Gilmore. When you have some of the league's top corners talking about just not being able to keep their legs under them trying to shadow that guy, that means something.

I think BB will understand that the cost of trying to shut down Hill will just be too great. Instead he needs to bank on the fact that the biggest homerun plays to Hill are also the hardest ones to simply execute well. Play him as you would most other WRs and hope that Mahomes just misses.

Because if you throw a shitload of capital at trying to stop Hill, you're ceding far easier throws to Watkins and Kelce. Hell, Williams out of the backfield could go crazy. And all of those throws will be simple pitches and catches for 8 yards here, 14 yards there. Low degree of difficulty, high margin for error throws that will bleed them out.

If I'm the Patriots I think I do the opposite of what everyone else is saying - I MAKE them beat me with big plays and hope they can't. I look to shut down the underneath routes to Watkins and Kelce that Mahomes can make (literally) with his eyes closed. I go out there and hope that he simply misses on a few of those, get them behind the sticks, gets them punting and the offense can answer to the tune of a 10-14 point lead that gets that crowd real nervous, real fast.

If the Patriots win this game it will be because the Chiefs didn't execute at their best. If both teams play A games, the Chiefs will win it. So they have to operate under the assumption that the way to force a B game will be a combination of higher level throws and unforced errors.

This is what I'd do if I was BB. We'll see what happens.

Regarding Mahomes on deep balls - dumbass Fouts actually had some good advice on this one - Mahomes need to put more loft under his deep balls, to let his receiver track it and add a little wiggle room.

Seems like he's throwing these 40-50 yard ropes that just have to be perfect to hit the receiver in stride. With a little loft the receiver might have to come back a little and get tackled. But at least he catches it. Or if it's a little overthrown Tyreek can turn on the afterburners and maybe catch up to it. That is a massive luxury to have - a receiver who can get a few steps on a DB w/o even running full speed. We need to take advantage of it.