Kansas City Chiefs’ mental strength will be tested by Patriots

The Kansas City Chiefs can put some mental demons to rest with a win over the New England Patriots on Sunday at Foxborough.

Every Kansas City Chiefs fan remembers this moment: With about a minute left in last year’s AFC championship, the Chiefs leading by four, Charvarius Ward intercepted Tom Brady. The game seemed over. I remember shooting up from my couch and calling my dad, grinning from ear to ear. I was ready to yell, “How bout those Chiefs!” and jump up and down like a giddy five-year-old, but then the commentator said something about a penalty. That was the end of that. Dee Ford had jumped offsides, nullifying the interception. The Pats went on to win the game and eventually the Super Bowl.

This Sunday marks a rematch of that unbelievable football game. The stakes are a little different, but the gravity of the matchup is comparable to last year’s slugfest.

It will be hard to tease apart this Sunday’s Chiefs-Patriots matchup from the 2019 AFC championship game. It was the biggest game in Andy Reid‘s tenure as coach, and Patrick Mahomes‘ career so far. The game was a frenzy. It seemed like the Chiefs had won at a few different moments, but Ward’s interception appeared to cement a Chiefs win. A defeat like that is never forgotten. And so, last season’s narrative was the continued supremacy of the Patriots. The Chiefs demonstrated promise in defeat but were plagued with the thought of what could have been.

But each NFL season demands a new narrative, and it is too early to write the story on this season. The story of the 2019 Chiefs will largely depend on whether or not they can defeat the Patriots this Sunday. For the Chiefs, a win means some sliver of revenge. A loss confirms the eternal resiliency of the Patriots dynasty and exposes the Chiefs as championship pretenders.

The biggest opponent the Chiefs will face this week is the mystique of the Patriots. This is partly because the Patriots don’t have a ton of talent to boast, especially on offense. On paper, the Chiefs have an advantage. Patrick Mahomes is better than the current version of Tom Brady, and the offense overall sits levels above New England. Rob Gronkowski is retired, and Josh Gordon and Antonio Brown are no longer Patriots.

While these personnel advantages count in the Chiefs’ favor, the ultimate foe will be the memory of defeat and the aura of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. While the Patriots are undermanned, their history of greatness and the psychological advantage they hold over the Chiefs is a powerful asset. This historical dominance can lead to tense, fearful football, or mistake-prone play.

For a young quarterback like Patrick Mahomes, the opportunity to march into frigid Foxborough and deliver a victory will serve to crack this psychological advantage. The Chiefs have had recent success against the Patriots, but those were in the Alex Smith years, and those Chiefs teams lacked Super Bowl potential.

The Patrick Mahomes led Chiefs are relatively young, with an identity that isn’t fully fleshed out. This is to say, Sunday’s battle will be a cerebral one. The Chiefs will face a physical opponent, but also deal with the mental challenge of undoing the 2019 AFC championship, the biggest game of the Patrick Mahomes era.

If this Chiefs team can march into Foxborough, with the heartache from last year’s championship game still recent, they will establish themselves as a team that is not only built to win but one that knows how to win.  Sunday’s matchup offers the Mahomes-led Chiefs a chance to respond to the hardest defeat they’ve ever endured and display their championship potential on the other side.