Patriots in trouble on Saturday?
The New England Patriots go to the AFC Championship game almost every season. Since 1996, the Patriots have gone to the penultimate game an incredible 10 times, with nine of those coming under the guiding eyes of head coach Bill Belichick and the golden right arm of one Tom Brady.
The Patriots were in line to be the top seed in the AFC once more this season, only needing to beat either the New York Jets or Miami Dolphins over the last two weeks of the regular season. Instead, New England fell in overtime against the desperate Jets at MetLife Stadium before inexplicably losing to Miami in Week 17. Couple those losses with a pair of wins by the underwhelming Denver Broncos, and New England fell into the second seed.
So, what is the difference? Instead of playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are without running backs Le’Veon Bell and DeAngelo Williams, and wide receiver Antonio Brown, the Patriots draw the Kansas City Chiefs. While the Chiefs have their own injury concerns in wide receiver Jeremy Maclin, and outside linebackers Justin Houston and Tamba Hali, Kansas City is a much more terrifying opponent.
The Chiefs have won 11 consecutive games and just curb-stomped the Houston Texans in the AFC Wild Card round, 30-0. The defense forced five turnovers including four interceptions of Brian Hoyer. While Brady is certainly never going to remind anybody of Hoyer, the Patriots offense is also a vulnerable mess at the moment.
The team only rushes for 3.7 yards per carry, the same number that Houston brought into the playoffs. The Patriots are also dealing with an ankle injury to left tackle Sebastian Vollmer, who has moved over from the right side after Nate Solder went out earlier in the year. He’s a game-time decision and from the sounds of things, might be better served to sit this one out. Guard Tre Jackson has already been ruled out, and Marcus Cannon is currently slated to line up against Justin Houston.
As though things could not get worse for New England, tight end Rob Gronkowski had an injection in his knee on Thursday and is supposedly very limited. With Gronkowski in all sorts of pain and wide receiver Julian Edelman coming back from a broken foot that has sidelined him for the last two months, the Patriots could have a brutal time against arguably the league’s best defense.
Currently, the Patriots are going off as the favorites to emerge from the AFC at 17/10 and are only behind the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl odds at 4/1. Considering all the injuries that are hampering the team from Foxborough, and the very solid opponent awaiting them, perhaps your money would be better served to go elsewhere.
Don’t ever count out Brady and Belichick, but this is going to be a serious test, even for them.
