KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A lot has been said and much more will be written about how the Patriots were able to hold Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce to a combined four catches for 65 yards in the Patriots' 37-31 victory on Sunday in the AFC Championship Game.
There will be a lot of discussion about coverage, and how Jonathan Jones (mostly) did a great job with safety help over the top against Hill, and how J.C. Jackson and then Stephon Gilmore (late) held Kelce in check.
All of that will be true. They covered very well for the most part, and that was a big key for the Patriots.
But it wasn't the biggest reason why the Patriots threw a shutout in the first half and allowed just seven points through three quarters — a head start the Patriots would need every bit of as the Chiefs scored 24 points in the fourth.
The Patriots made Patrick Mahomes look mortal for three quarters because they used two things that have been his kryptonite in his spectacular sophomore campaign: man coverage and, more importantly, pressure.
Mahomes had never seen anything close to what the Patriots unleashed at Arrowhead Stadium.
"They blitzed about every down. Played man coverage," said Chiefs coach Andy Reid. "They were able to get home there a little bit on some of their gains. We made a few adjustments at halftime and came back and pressured them earlier. That’s my responsibility. I’ll take that."
We talked entering this game about Mahomes' two "weaknesses." There were the issues he showed against man coverage, especially against the Colts.
"(The Patriots) challenged us," said Mahomes. "They came up and played man. Not a lot of teams have this year. They put people in our face to see how we responded. The first half, we struggled. We couldn’t make anything happen."
And then there was the pressure. As we said at the time:
In the four games where Mahomes faced the most pressure, the Chiefs were just 2-2 with one overtime win (Ravens).
The No. 1 way to have success holding Mahomes in check is to get pressure on him. When he was pressured this season, Mahomes completed just 88 of 185 passes (47.6 percent) and threw nine touchdowns against eight interceptions (70.4 rating — 16th in the league), according to ProFootballFocus.com.
With a clean pocket, Mahomes led the league with a 134.2 rating (74.7 completion percentage, 41 TDs, 4 INTs).