For the Patriots, slowing Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes remains ultimate challenge

FOXBOROUGH — Ask Patriots’ defenders about how Patrick Mahomes has changed since their first meeting in October, and they’re quick to answer.

“Different guy,” Kyle Van Noy told BostonSportsJournal.com on Tuesday. “More and more confidence. He’s a leader. He’s doing everything you want in a quarterback.”

“I agree with that,” Elandon Roberts told BSJ. “He was impressive when we played him back then, but since then, man, you can definitely you can see he’s grown even more. There’s more consistency in his game.”

Consistency. Maturation. Growth. Whatever word you want to use, the Patriots remain impressed with the youngster, who has clearly grown more comfortable in his own skin. He was very highly regarded coming into that Sunday night showdown against New England in October, but since then, he’s grown into the role, leading his team to the brink of a Super Bowl with a series of really impressive performances. Using one of Tom Brady’s favorite phrases: a lot of times this season, Mahomes has looked like a young man who knows the answers to the test.

“He’s definitely a great quarterback,” said Trey Flowers.

In that Sunday night game in October, the Patriots used a variety of schemes to try and slow Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offense. (Emphasis on the word try — New England won, but the 40 points allowed represented a season-low for the defense.) It was basically a white-knuckle ride for the Patriots’ defense, which was scorched for six plays of 20 yards or more on the evening.

So what’s the plan this time around?



When it comes to New England, history tells us these games are often won over the course of the week. With that in mind, the first thing you do is try and replicate their speed in practice using an old approach Bill Belichick has leaned on previously: Give the scout team receivers a three- to five-yard head start on the defensive backs in hopes of giving the defenders some sort of idea of what they’re going to have to deal with. It’s the only way to prepare for the speed of the likes of Tyreek Hill and the rest of their offensive skill position players.

The truth of the matter is that an inordinate amount of the Patriots’ success or failure on defense in the AFC title game will come down to whether or not the secondary plays better than it did the first time around. The regular-season was tremendous for the New England secondary, but that game against the Chiefs represented a low-point for that group. (Check out Greg’s breakdown on the game here, complete with a very detailed look at who was at fault on a number of deep shots.) There was a pick by Duron Harmon on an ill-advised pass, but all in all, it was an inexcusable performance for a veteran secondary.

“You have to go out there and compete,” said cornerback Jason McCourty, who had coverage responsibilities on the thunderbolt of a 75-yard pass play from Mahomes from Hill the first time these two teams met this year. “There were times when we played them the first time where I felt like us in the secondary didn’t do a good job of just knowing where (Hill) was, and knowing how he could hurt us, whether it was an over route or a deep route or whatever it was.”

One other element involves the scout-team quarterback. This week, the Patriots will likely hand the scout-team quarterback role to someone other than Danny Etling as they try and prepare for Mahomes’ unique skill set. Mahomes isn’t necessarily a running quarterback along the lines of some of the signal-callers the Patriots have faced this year (Mitchell Trubisky, Deshaun Watson), but he’s mobile enough to keep plays alive just long enough for the likes of Hill and Travis Kelce to gain that extra second of separation.

Up front, containment, gap discipline, and disruption remain key.

“Keep him in the pocket, but also keep pressure on him,” said Dont’a Hightower when asked about the game plan. “(Don’t let) him feel comfortable. But, obviously, he’s an athletic quarterback. He can throw just as well outside the pocket as he can inside the pocket. I mean, on film, you see him not even looking where he’s throwing and he’s able to hit it, too. I mean, he’s a very accurate quarterback, so we want to keep him inside the pocket but keep pressure on him.”

One thing that seemed to make him a little uncomfortable the first time around was the Patriots’ ability to get him with some well-disguised looks that fooled him in some key spots, including one that resulted in a key interception from Hightower.

So what do they have in store for him this time? Maybe it’s their amoeba defense, which they have flashed at times over the second half of the regular season. Maybe it’ll involve a personnel switch — the Patriots’ secondary opened that night with Jonathan Jones and Jason McCourty as part of a nickel package. (Expect J.C. Jackson to get the call over one of them this time around — the rapidly ascending Jackson wasn’t even active for that October game.)

Or maybe they’ll go with a part-time spy, a role that fell to Hightower in their first meeting.

But against Mahomes, using a spy can be a double-edged sword, according to former Chiefs defensive lineman (and New England native) Mike DeVito, who has watched a ton of Kansas City film this year.

“The issue with using a spy over the course of 60 minutes? It’s hard to commit one guy to stopping the quarterback, especially when you’re talking about an offense like that with so many options,” DeVito said. “I know committing a spy to Mahomes sounds great in principle, but I don’t know if you can really afford to do that from start to finish when it comes to the passing game.”

That doesn’t even begin to take into account the fact that, in the first game, the Patriots routinely pinned their free safety deeper than usual to guard against big plays — the Chiefs led the league in the regular season when it came to explosive plays. If you use a spy to monitor Mahomes, that leaves you with nine defenders.

No one preaches team defense more than the Patriots, and the ability to play good complementary football looms large here. We asked DeVito about this prior to the game between the two teams in October, and he hit the nail on the head — the best way to beat Mahomes is to keep him off the field. (To that end, New England’s edge when it came to time of possession was 36-24. That was the largest T.O.P. deficit the Chiefs faced all year.) That’s still the case this time around.

“You want to run the ball and you want to eat up clock,” DeVito said. “New England did a good job of that last week against the Chargers, and I’m thinking the Patriots will want to do the same thing this week.”

Ultimately, there’s no denying the fact Mahomes is a great young quarterback who could go on to big things in this league. But on Sunday, he’ll face another test from the New England defense. Whether or not he passes will play a large role in who advances and who goes home.