With the Buffalo Bills hoping that they could finally overcome their demons and beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs, it’s likely they’ll need to stop one of KC’s biggest offensive threats.
Buffalo advanced to Sunday’s AFC Championship game thanks to a dropped two-point conversion attempt by the Baltimore Ravens.
Now, they’ll have to travel to Missouri to take on the Chiefs – who disposed of the Houston Texans with ease – thanks in part to leading receiver Travis Kelce.
Making one of his routine appearances on ‘Inside the NFL’, former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick offered his thoughts on the Chiefs тιԍнт end and how the Bills could finally get to him.
‘[The Bills are] going to have to stop Travis Kelce,’ said Belichick. ‘That’ll be a big challenge for them. I tried to do that for the better part of a decade. It’s not easy.’
Speaking about Kelce’s red zone ability, Belichick said that the тιԍнт end is ‘particularly’ hard to stop inside of 20 yards.
Former Patriots coach Bill Belichick offered the Buffalo Bills advice on stopping Travis Kelce
Kelce has been particularly potent in the past for the Chiefs against Buffalo in the playoffs
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‘The number one thing with him is, you have to find him and cover him,’ the newly-minted North Carolina head coach said.
‘He does a great job of getting into open spaces, and when the defenders look back for the ball, especially in zone defense, he just uncovers, and Mahomes hits him. This guy is such a threat in the red area you just have to know where he is.’
These two teams are meeting in the AFC тιтle game for the second time in five years. Sunday’s game will be the fourth time in five years the teams met in the playoffs in some fashion.
As fans of both teams are well aware, all of those previous contests have gone the way of the Chiefs. All of them (barring the 2020 AFC Championship, where the Bills lost 38-24) have been extremely close contests – with one even going to overtime.
If there’s a common thread to be found in those contests, it’s that Travis Kelce has the tendency to put up big numbers.
In the 2020 AFC тιтle game and the 2021 AFC Divisional matchups, Kelce was the second leading receiver behind Tyreek Hill (118 yds in 2020, 96 yds in 2021), but he caught at least one touchdown in those games (two in the AFC тιтle game).
Last season, Kelce led the team in receiving yards with 75 and caught two touchdown pᴀsses from quarterback Patrick Mahomes to win their divisional round game.
Essentially, Buffalo’s defense has always had a tough time stopping Kelce. Maybe some advice from one of the team’s all-time greatest enemies could help them.
