Chiefs vs. Lions: Eight things every fan should know

The Chiefs will have their most helpful challenge on offense on Sunday

This point is totally an opinion, but one I think is valid. Who is the one team in the entire league that most people think will challenge the Chiefs to make it to and win the Super Bowl? That would be the New England Patriots, obviously.

It just is what it is, they will be our rivals in that way for as long as Tom Brady and Bill Belichick remain where they are. If the beginning of this season is any indication, that’s likely several more seasons.

Here’s the thing: nobody will truly be able to recreate what the Belichick lead Patriots defense has up its sleeve to compete against the Chiefs high flying offense. What’s more, few teams have the comparable talent on defense. The Patriots defense is the total package of great scheme and good to great talent at every level.

That said, there are a handful of teams that represent what can best be described as a tuneup for how the Patriots will play the Chiefs offense. I’d argue the first, just based on scheme is going to be the Oakland Raiders.

As we know from that game, the Raiders attempted to to press the Chiefs wide receivers similarly to what the Patriots did in the AFC Championship game. It worked for a bit, but then something clicked for Mahomes and he hit throws with precision rarely seen in the NFL.

Then there’s teams like the Jaguars and Ravens, who have talent for days on defense. These units also tend to work for a bit, but great players find ways to win games in spite of who lines up on the other side. Mahomes, as well as the other great players on our offense did just that in these games.

Now we come to the Detroit Lions. As I said, the Lions defense has struggled a bit this season and I don’t expect them to be able to stop the Chiefs consistently. However, from a schematic standpoint is there anyone who will likely run as similar of a scheme to Bill Belichick than Matt Patricia? Likely not.

While this team will most likely be missing it’s top defensive player, and doesn’t compare to the talent of some of the other defenses that we have already played this season, this should be an extremely helpful tuneup for the Chiefs offense.

Mahomes and company can try unique things that they might not be able to experiment with against the defending champions. They can assess what works and doesn’t work versus what’s likely a similar scheme to what they’ll see in New England late in the season, and then adjust to the Patriots particular personnel when the time comes.

That type of experience, even against lesser teams, can be priceless when the game is on the line in the playoffs. It’s simply a hypothesis, but the more teams we play that play similar schemes to that of the Patriots the better off we’ll be in January. At the end of the day, January is what truly matters for this team this year. We have to make it through January to get to February.