Report: Bill Belichick Has Difficult Decision To Make Before Patriots-Chiefs Clash

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick knows how to stop Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. The New England Patriots were one of four teams to defeat the Chiefs last season. The Pats did it on two occasions.

The Chiefs made it really close in the second half of a game. They overcame a 24-9 deficit in the regular season before the Patriots won 43-40 with a last-second field goal.

New England led the AFC Championship Game 14-10, and Kansas City only scored one touchdown before the fourth quarter of the game. The match went overtime, and New England won 37-31. Tom Brady and his team have been really great against Kansas City in the first half of the games and less in the second half.

According to Patriots safety Duron Harmon, the Chiefs are great at planning games. The Patriots did a few tricks early and showed the Chiefs some new plays. Kansas City had a hard time coping with these changes back then. However, Andy Reid is one of the best offensive coordinators in the game, and he can always make the right adjustments. Harmon believes that his team has to keep switching it up on their opponents.

“They do a good job of just game-planning,” Harmon said. “Obviously we did some stuff on them early that we showed them some new looks and it gave them some problems, but (Chiefs head coach) Andy Reid is one of the best if not the best offensive coordinator in the game right now. He does a great job of just making the adjustments — seeing what we’re doing and continuing to playing the game within the game. He was able to do some things to get it going. We’ve just got to keep switching it up on them, making it tough on them and not just sitting in one thing.”

Bill Belichick has to decide

The Patriots were successful in the AFC Championship Game because they used cornerback Jonathan Jones and safety Devin McCourty on wide receiver Tyreek Hill. Cornerback JC Jackson went on tight end Travis Kelce and cornerback Stephon Gilmore was put on wide receiver Sammy Watkins. They switched the formula in the fourth quarter and moved Gilmore on Kelce.

New England may do the same, but the Chiefs will probably be ready for that. Will the Patriots stick to this formula or will they switch it up to keep Kansas City away from a win?

Bill Belichick has to go through the scheme, and he has to pick the things he will use again. The game-planning process is really tough.

“Those are the kind of questions you go through every week — what to repeat, what not to repeat or maybe what to make it look like you’re going to repeat it but do something that complements it,” the coach said Friday. “That’s all part of the game-planning process. I think there’s a place for all those scenarios, the ones that you mentioned — complementary plays and so forth, run the same play out of a different look or using a different personnel group or a different guy to do it or something like that. It’s all part of it.”

Harmon insists that the head coach throws new wrinkles at Kansas City. It will be a game worth watching. New England better win this one. They need to win this game to shut down all the rumors about their lack of performance.

“Just keep switching it up, making it hard on the quarterback, not just letting him know what we’re going to be in and just sitting in one coverage,” Harmon said. “Just continuing to make him work, make him use his eyes and go through his reads and not just give it to him in one play.”