FOXBORO -- Get ready to hear that phrase you hear every so often whenever the Patriots play one of the best offenses in the league. You know the one. "Every blade of grass."
Never has that phrase been more pertinent than this week as the Patriots prepare to take on the Chiefs, Andy Reid's West Coast system, and likely league MVP Patrick Mahomes.
The marriage of Reid and Mahomes, who can take the coach's tried-and-true system and elevate it to new heights with his unique physical gifts and his willingness to create, is a particularly vexing combination.
"Look, he's an outstanding player in every facet of the game," Bill Belichick said on a conference call Tuesday. "He's got a strong arm. He can throw the ball the length of the field, but he's got a great touch. He's got the ability to read coverages, extend plays, make good decisions and make explosive plays without taking too much of a risk and putting his team in jeopardy.
"He does all those things well. That's a credit to him. That's a credit to their team and certainly the coaching staff for being able to put together the variety and explosiveness and the complementary plays that they have that make it so difficult to defend them."
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The Chiefs can hit the Patriots in the screen game with Damien Williams. They can go four verticals with speed demon Tyreek Hill and tight-end-but-really-a-receiver Travis Kelce and threaten to score. They can attack with quick-hitting RPOs, high-low crossers, or the scramble-drill plays that are perhaps more dangerous than anything called in the huddle.
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They're all problems, as the Patriots found out in their Week 6 matchup after the Chiefs quickly put up 31 points in the second half that night. Belichick, obviously, hasn't forgotten.
"You certainly have to defend the whole field with him," Belichick said. "Andy does a real good job of that anyway with the plays that they run. They attack you sideline to sideline at the line of scrimmage and behind the line of scrimmage on screen plays and things like that, to 60 yards downfield and all the spots in between.
"Mahomes could make it even more of a problem by extending the play, scrambling around, which he's done many times, we've seen that many times on film. We've talked to our players about it, and we don't want that situation to come up, but I'm sure it will, probably more than once, and we'll have to deal with it then.
"Very challenging. He can do a lot...We'll do the best we can this week to defend the things we can defend. There'll be some things that we have to, if we overcompensate one way then we'll be a little light somewhere else. If we're balanced we're balanced. We'll just have to decide how we want to try to deploy our players on different situations and so forth and see how that plays out."
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