NFL Playoff Bracket 2019: Predicting Super Bowl winner entering Week 14

AFC Championship: 4 Kansas City Chiefs at 2 New England Patriots

One year ago, it was the Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots meeting in the AFC Championship Game, though that matchup was at Arrowhead Stadium. As we all know, Tom Brady and the Pats were able to overcome a relatively bad performance from the future Hall-of-Fame quarterback in which he threw two interceptions to pick up the 37-31 win and advance to the Super Bowl, which they obviously won.

In that matchup, though, while Brady threw for close to 350 yards, the Patriots found most of their success in the running game as Sony Michel and Rex Burkhead combined for four touchdowns and over 150 yards rushing. And given the woes of the Chiefs run defense in 2019, you might suppose they could use that formula again.

But the Patriots offense is not even as good as they were last season, particularly in the run game. On top of that, Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs present a problem for the stout New England defense as the Pats simply don’t have the speed to keep up with the likes of Tyreek Hill, Mecole Hardman and even Travis Kelce. This personnel can exploit the Cover-0 blitzes New England loves to run with.

Even though this game is in Gillette, the Chiefs aren’t a team easily fazed by the elements. Instead, they can still work their magic in them. I have enough faith in the Kansas City offense and enough doubts about the New England offense to think that KC has the ability to go on the road and punch their ticket to Super Bowl LIV.

Winner: Chiefs