Inside Slant

The Sports Xchange

October 11, 2018 at 3:02 am.

Even with Brad around, all eyes will be on Mahomes

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady enters Sunday night’s showdown against the visiting Kansas City Chiefs needing just one win to reach 200 regular-season victories in his career, but finds himself sharing the prime-time spotlight alongside Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes, with all of six wins on his resume.

“I was a Cowboys fan when I was younger,” Mahomes said, “so being from Texas, I wasn’t necessarily a fan of him winning all the time. But you definitely respected his game and how he played. When you have that much success, it takes a bunch of hard work, so you respect that.”

When Brady won his first Super Bowl, Mahomes was just 6 years old, making it almost impossible for the wunderkind quarterback to remember an era when Brady didn’t reign supreme. He finds it surreal to be facing him with his undefeated Chiefs standing atop the AFC.

“I don’t really remember those first few Super Bowls that he won,” Mahomes said. “I remember the Super Bowl, the snow game and them kicking the field goal to win. But not until I got older and just seeing his successes year in and year out as I’ve gotten older, it is truly special to see all of that hard work pay off.”

Brady and Mahomes share a distinction for starting out their careers as winners. Brady went 11-4 in his first season as a starter, a season culminating in a Super Bowl championship. Mahomes has won the first six starts of his career.

Mahomes ranks third-best in the Super Bowl era with 1,797 yards passing in his first six career games. His 14 touchdown passes rank tied for fourth.

It’s a quick start that impresses Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who says Mahomes is playing great football.

“He can throw it, run it, does a good job of reading coverages, gets the ball to his playmakers in space and creates space for them so they can make a lot of plays,” Belichick said.

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid sees this game as another important test for his quarterback. He know Belichick has some tricks up his sleeve with unscouted looks that Mahomes hasn’t seen on film.

“He’s the best at that,” Reid said of Belichick. “He mixes and matches, and he does that whole thing. He can change up and give you a completely different look one week than the other. So you make sure that you’ve got plays that are good versus all and you go in and you play.”

Mahomes says he relishes the opportunity to measure himself against Belichick’s defense.

“Coach Reid says it, when you play in this league you want to play against the best and they’ve been one of the best for a long time,” Mahomes said. “It’s an awesome opportunity to get to go up against them and see what we can do against them.”

The head coaches in this matchup share a hefty victory collection of their own. Belichick and Reid own 480 combined wins entering the game. Reid needs one more win to become the ninth coach in league history with 200 wins including the postseason.

The duo also profess sharing much mutual respect.

“They’re very well-coached, as they always are with Andy,” Belichick said. ” Just a very explosive group. It’s easy to see why they’re undefeated.”

Reid holds similar esteem for Belichick.

“He is very intelligent,” Reid said. “He loves the sport. He doesn’t just love the sport, he loves the history of the game and is passionate about it and brings that every day.”

Belichick says the Chiefs’ undefeated start stems from their ability to jump out to early leads. He also points to their come-from-behind victory against Denver in Week 4 showing an ability to rally when necessary.

“They’ve killed teams in the first quarter,” Belichick said, referencing Kansas City’s 59-9 advantage in the first quarter of games this season. “It looks like they can play in any situation they’re in. That’s why they’re as good of a football team as there is in the National Football League right now. They’re good at everything.”

SERIES HISTORY: 35th regular-season meeting. Chiefs lead series, 18-13-3. Andy Reid won two out of three matchups against Bill Belichick and the Patriots during his first five seasons in Kansas City, but Belichick owned the head-to-head series before that. He dealt Reid four defeats as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, including a 24-21 loss in the 2005 Super Bowl. The Chiefs own a 1-4 record at Gillette Stadium, the lone win coming with a 42-27 victory in the 2017 season opener.

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