Patriots head coach Bill Belichick: Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes-Tyreek Hill connection can kill teams on short and long pass plays Tonight [url= Marcus Cannon Jersey[/url] , the New England Patriots will face their biggest challenge of the year when the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs come to town. Combining an explosive offensive attack with an opportunistic yet at times inconsistent defense, the Chiefs are sitting at 5-0 heading into their game against the 3-2 Patriots – a contest that will likely have an enormous impact on the AFC’s playoff picture even this early during the season.Naturally, New England needs to bring its A-game as the Chiefs pose problems on both sides of the football. In the latest episode of the Belestrator, head coach Bill Belichick illustrated just how those problems look like: Belichick and quarterback-turned-commentator took a look at Kansas City’s pass rush, and the team’s explosive passing game led by second-year passer Patrick Mahomes:Belichick and Zolak start by taking a look at Kansas City’s defense, led by linemen Chris Jones and Dee Ford. “[Jones] is long, quick [url= Devin McCourty Jersey[/url] , powerful, he can make plays with his power, with his quickness, with his pursuit; he bats balls, he’s a good pass rusher,” Belichick said about the Chiefs’ starting defensive tackle who is ranked as Pro Football Focus’ 22nd best player at his position this year.“He can ruin the game and so can Dee Ford,” Belichick continued. “This guy’s as fast as a pass rusher as we’ll see all year. He’s got good quickness.” Ford currently leads the Chiefs with 4.0 sacks and with fellow linebacker Justin Houston likely out tonight will play an even more important role when it comes to stopping Tom Brady and the Patriots’ offense. “Those two guys cause a lot of negative plays for the Chiefs defense.”While Jones and Ford are without a doubt outstanding players [url=] , the main reason for Kansas City’s success so far in 2018 is the team’s offense led by MVP candidate Patrick Mahomes and explosive pass catchers Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. New England needs to find a way to slow the two talented receivers down today: the duo has combined for 55 catches this season, for 832 yards and six scores.“We’re dealing with a strong-armed quarterback, and a receiver with explosive speed that can run through any type of defense,” Belichick said about the Mahomes-Hill connection, which hooked up 27 times so far this year. “[Hill] can kill you on the short plays just as quickly as he can kill you on the long ones.”Kelce cannot be forgotten either, though. Arguably the NFL’s second best tight end behind the Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski, the 29-year old leads Kansas City with 28 catches. “Kelce [is] really a go-to guy for them anywhere on the field but particularly in the red area and near the goal line [url= Rob Gronkowski Jersey[/url] ,” said Belichick about him. “This guy’s a really good football player, especially in the red area, third down, and goal-line situations.”Belichick’s breakdown further confirms one thing: New England will have its hands full today. One of the pivotal plays of the New England Patriots’ win in Super Bowl 49 against the Seattle Seahawks was never actually run in a practice session leading up to the game. Instead, the team installed it the night before the game by running it in a walkthrough setting at the team hotel’s ballroom. The play in question? No other than the game-winning touchdown pass from Tom Brady to wide receiver Julian Edelman.Four year later, it looks like a similar scenario happened again. “We just put in eight new plays in the game plan this morning,” Brady told NBC’s Peter King after the Patriots’ thrilling 37-31 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game. As King explained [url= James White Jersey[/url] , New England’s staff announced at a meeting at 11:00 a.m. that a handful of new plays were being installed into the game plan.Just like they did prior to Super Bowl 49, the team walked through the plays in question in one of their hotel ballrooms. While not all of the plays were actually called during the game that was kicked off just a few hours later, “four or five” of them were. The Patriots’ improvisational skills did not stop there, however, as King also noted that one of the team’s biggest plays of the day was not part of the actual play sheet for the day.New England converted three third downs on its game-winning touchdown drive in overtime, and the final of which — a 15-yard pass from Brady to tight end Rob Gronkowski to convert a 3rd and 10 — was neither on the sheet nor run in practice during the week leading up to the game. “I don’t know when’s the last time we ran it,” one player inside the Patriots’ locker room told King after the game.The play in question saw Gronkowski lined up one-on-one on the left side boundary and run a slant route for the completion and conversion:“Gronk almost broke out of it — great route by him [url=] ,” Brady told King before praising Patriots offensive coordinator for coming up with the call despite the team not actually having prepared to run the play. But run it they did anyway, and it set up New England at the Kansas City 15-yard line. Three plays later, Rex Burkhead found the end zone to give the team the win in one of the wildest conference title games in recent memory.And as the Patriots showed yesterday, entering the game with a sound plan is only one part of the winning recipe. A team also needs to execute and at times come up with new, unconventional ways. New England did all that against the AFC’s number one seed — and the final passing play of the day and the eight that were quickly installed ahead of the contest serve as a reminder of that.