All week long, you might listen to Patriot fans and think\nthe game this weekend is in Denver and not Kansas City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recently, the Patriots have learned how to win in the Mile\nHigh City. But a check of the history\nbooks tells you that life for the Patriots is much worse some 565 miles to the\neast on I-70.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Patriots will have to travel to Arrowhead Stadium on\nSunday to take on the top seeded Kansas City Chiefs in the 2018 AFC\nChampionship Game. Chiefs fans are among\nthe most loud, rabid and inspired fans in the NFL. The fans make for one of the more hostile\nenvironments for a visiting team to have to withstand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the Patriots are among the most vulnerable opponents\nthat come to this place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though the Patriots won the tiebreaker with Kansas City\nby virtue of a 43-40 win at Gillette Stadium in Week 6, the Chiefs got the top\nseed thanks to a 12-4 record with the Patriots finishing only 11-5. The Patriots took care of the other 12-4 team\nhandily on Sunday, defeating the Los Angeles Chargers 41-28 on Sunday in the\nDivisional round. The other 12-4 team is\nnow on deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the game will be at Arrowhead Stadium, and not Gillette\nStadium. Arrowhead has been around for\nquite some time, built back in 1972. It\nis the fifth oldest stadium in the NFL. \nIt is known for its loud crowds, and the Patriots have some dubious\nhistory in that sense. On the Patriots\u2019\nmost recent visit to Arrowhead (September 29, 2014), the crowd helped establish\na record which was verified by Guinness as the loudest crowd to ever watch a\ngame at 142.2 decibels (thanks, Wikipedia). \nIt remains an ominous place to play for any visiting team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Patriots lately don\u2019t play on the road in the playoffs\nall that much. They have not won a road\nplayoff game since 2006 at San Diego, they have not won a road AFC title game\nsince 2004 at Pittsburgh. They lost at\nIndianapolis in 2006 and lost at Denver in 2013 and 2015. The Patriots were 3-5 on the road in the 2018\nregular season. Having the game at\nKansas City helps the Chiefs greatly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For some weird scheduling reasons prior to the current\nfour-division alignment, the Patriots rarely played at Arrowhead. But when they did, the Chiefs almost always\nwon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since a 31-24 win by the Boston Patriots at old Municipal\nStadium in 1964, the Patriots are 1-8-1 in Kansas City, with a 1-5 record at\nArrowhead. Other than a 27-27 tie in\n1966, the Patriots went from 1964 to 2004 without a win in western Missouri. The teams played every year from 1964 to\n1970, then scheduling took a weird turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite Arrowhead being built in 1972, the Patriots would\nwait 20 years before playing their first game in this stadium. They first went there in 1992 and lost,\n27-20. They returned there in 1995 and\nlost, 31-26. Four years later, they\nlost, 16-14. That made the Patriots 0-3\nall time at Arrowhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in 2004, the Patriots broke through and finally won for\nthe first time in 40 years in Kansas City. \nOn a Monday night game in November (on this writer\u2019s birthday, no less),\nthe Patriots went into Arrowhead and came away with a 27-19 win en route to a\nwin in Super Bowl XXXIX at year\u2019s end. \nThough his name does not appear in the defensive stats, the game is most\nnoteworthy for one of the starting cornerbacks being Earthwind Moreland, one of\nthe several replacements for the injured Ty Law. But the real heroes of the game for New\nEngland were Tom Brady (119.9 passer rating), Corey Dillon (98 yards rushing\nand two touchdowns), Deion Branch (105 receiving yards and a touchdown), and\nRodney Harrison (interception of Trent Green).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They lost the next year, 26-16, which now brings us to the\nmost recent visit there. Oddly, it was\nnine years later, in 2014. It was also\nthe aforementioned highest decibel game ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was Week 4 in 2014, and the Patriots suffered one of\nthe more demoralizing and one-sided losses of the Brady-Belichick Era. Jamaal Charles scored three touchdowns, and\nthe Chiefs annihilated the Patriots, 41-14. \nMost every football expert declared the Patriot dynasty over. That season ended with the Patriots defeating\nthe Seattle Seahawks, 28-24 in Super Bowl XLIX. \nReports of the demise of the Patriots were delightfully premature. The Patriots have not been back to Arrowhead\nsince.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That game is even more well known for the following week,\nand the most famous press conference in the life of Bill Belichick. The phrase \u201cWe\u2019re on to Cincinnati!\u201d became a\ncatch phrase, as the coach answered literally every question with that\nstatement. The writers relentlessly\npressed the coach to explain what went wrong in the Monday night debacle. Belichick stood his ground. By the way, the Patriots clobbered the\nBengals, 43-17. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Feeling discouraged? \nTime to cheer you up a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If there is any solace as to having to return to this house\nof horrors for the Patriots, it should be stated that the Chiefs have more\nplayoff baggage than the Patriots do losses in this loud place. Not many fans might realize that this is an\nhistoric game for the Chiefs in the context of heritage and franchise legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First of all, the Chiefs are hosting the first AFC\nChampionship Game in franchise history. \nThis also includes the ten years they were in the AFL. The Chiefs went to Super Bowls I and IV, and\nin both cases had to win on the road to get to those games. Their 1962 AFL Championship (as the Dallas\nTexans) was won at Houston. That\u2019s 58\nyears, and they are now finally hosting their first conference title game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since winning Super Bowl IV (23-7 over the Minnesota Vikings\nat New Orleans), the last such game before the merger, the Chiefs have only a\nsmattering of playoff appearances, and very few playoff wins. The Chiefs are 5-16 in all post-merger\nplayoff games they have been in. At\nArrowhead, they are 3-7 all-time in playoff games. The fact that the Chiefs won Saturday against\nIndianapolis represents a major moment in franchise history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the 49 years since Super Bowl IV, the Chiefs have made\nthe playoffs only 17 times, including this year. The first year, 1971, featured the historic\ndouble-overtime loss to Miami in the Divisional round, the first home playoff\ngame in team history, and the last game at old Municipal Stadium. They would not make the playoffs for another\n15 years, losing a Wild Card game to the Jets. \nTheir next home playoff game would wait 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1990 began the best postseason run since the Chiefs entered\nthe NFL. They made the playoffs in seven\nof eight seasons. 1993 was the pinnacle,\nplaying in their only other AFC Championship Game until this Sunday. But they lost at Buffalo, 30-13, as the Bills\nwere in the middle of their four straight Super Bowl seasons. The last two of these seven playoff seasons\nwere the most gut wrenching, as in 1995 and 1997 they were the top playoff\nseed. But they went one and done at home\nboth times, losing 10-7 to the Colts in 1995 and 14-10 to Denver in 1997. Marty Schottenheimer, one of the worst\npostseason coaches in history, was the Chiefs\u2019 head coach for all these eight\nseasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2003, the Chiefs were the two seed. And again they went one and done at\nhome. Under head coach Dick Vermeil,\nthey lost to Indianapolis 38-31. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under Andy Reid, the Chiefs are 2-4 in the postseason,\nincluding a 27-20 loss to the Patriots at Foxborough in the Divisional round of\n2015. This game marks the only previous time these\ntwo teams have ever met in the postseason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the Chiefs were in the AFL, they were 5-2 in the\npostseason (1-0 as the Dallas Texans, the 1962 AFL Championship at Houston,\nwhich also went to double overtime like the 1971 Miami playoff game) under head\ncoach Hank (\u201c65 toss power trap!\u201d) Stram, and 1-1 in Super Bowls. Suffice it to say that the AFL Chiefs did a\nbit better than the NFL Chiefs in the postseason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They lost the inaugural Super Bowl to Green Bay in 1967,\n35-14. Stram vowed that the\nTexans\/Chiefs would win more games than any other AFL team in history, and he\nproved correct. But they were put down\nby Packer head coach Vince Lombardi after the first Super Bowl, saying that the\nChiefs didn\u2019t measure up to the better teams in the NFL. Lombardi was alive to see the Chiefs win\nSuper Bowl IV, but if he were alive today, he\u2019d take the postseason record of\nhis Packers over the Chiefs any day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kansas City has opened as a three-point favorite over the\nPatriots. Given the Patriots\u2019 poor\nrecord in this city and stadium, and given the Chiefs\u2019 checkered playoff\nhistory, something has to give. It\nshould be an entertaining game for all football fans, and an emotional roller\ncoaster for the fans of both teams. \nEither the Patriots will become the first team since Buffalo to go to\nthree straight Super Bowls (again, when they went to their four straight), or\nthe Chiefs will make it back to the Big Show for the first time in 49 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nothing better than dueling curses. It helped the Red Sox against the Angels in\n1986. Let\u2019s hope the Patriots get\nsimilar help in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently, the Patriots have learned how to win in the Mile High City. But a check of the history books tells you that life for the Patriots is much worse some 565 miles to the east on I-70.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":91,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2018-patriots-playoffs"],"yoast_head":"\n