An Unconventional Preview of the Patriots-Chiefs game

Welcome to Season 7, Episode 6 of the Unconventional Preview, a serious-yet-lighthearted, nostalgia-tinted look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup.

This is the one we’ve been waiting for. The 5-0 Chiefs, led by electrifying first-year starter Patrick Mahomes at quarterback, come to Foxborough to face the Patriots, who climbed back above .500 with last Thursday’s victory over the Colts.

October games don’t get much more relevant than this. With a defeat, the Patriots would have their third loss of the season in Week 6. Last season, they lost three games all year, and the season before just two. The Patriots have not lost three of their first six games since the 2012 season. They went 9-1 the rest of the way, but their season ended against the Ravens in the AFC Championship Game.

A win would affirm the improvement we’ve seen over the last two weeks in wins over the Dolphins and Colts, and it might even set up the Patriots as the favorite in the AFC. Remember, the Chiefs began last season at 5-0, then lost six of their next seven, including to the lowly Jets, lousy Raiders, and laughable Giants. The major difference is that checkdown king Alex Smith was the Chiefs’ quarterback last year. Now they’re led by Mahomes, who has been both electrifying and efficient in his first season as the starter — but is he ready to match Brady in a shootout, a la 1993 Bledsoe vs. Marino? Can’t wait to find out. Better prepare for a thriller, folks.

Kick it off, Gostkowski, and let’s get this one started . . .

THREE PLAYERS I’LL BE WATCHING NOT NAMED TOM BRADY

Patrick Mahomes: Six starts into his career, the Chiefs’ second year quarterback is on a very short list of the most exciting players in the league – and he probably tops that list. Through five games this season in which the Chiefs have averaged 35 points per game, Mahomes has thrown for 302 yards per game, 14 touchdowns, versus just 2 interceptions, with a 63.6 completion percentage. Oh, and he’s also run for 66 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Geez, just wait until we see what he can do when he’s got a few more games’ worth of reps. It’s not just that he’s putting up superstar numbers, either. He has a slithery mobility, a cannon for an arm, and can stick the football in any spot with uncanny accuracy. (His dad is former Red Sox pitcher Pat Mahomes. Let’s just say he got his accuracy from his mom. I will retire this joke now forever.) He also has the voice of Kermit the Frog, though no one has heard him sing “Rainbow Connection’’ yet. Go ahead and root for him to turn into Tyler Palko on Sunday. But this is one of the most likable young players to come around in years.

Stephon Gilmore: I honestly have no idea how the Patriots will attempt to slow down this fast, deep, and creative Chiefs offense. I’m not saying they can’t do it. I just don’t know how they would, unless the NFL permits a one-game-only exemption to pummel the Chiefs’ receivers like Ty Law, Tebucky Jones, and friends did to the ’01 Colts one memorable night. I do know this: If the Patriots are to deliver Mahomes and the Chiefs’ skill players their first confrontation with frustration of the season, Gilmore will be a significant factor. After Trey Flowers, he is probably the closest thing the Patriots have to a premier talent on their defense, and to me his slow start last year has resulted in him being wildly underrated. He is a terrific all-around cornerback, something Bill Belichick acknowledged with a little more honesty than he wanted to reveal when he admitted Gilmore was playing better than he did last year. He needs to be at his best Sunday. He usually is.

Stephon Gilmore will need to be at his best against the explosive Chiefs offense on Sunday.

Josh Gordon: It’s tempting to say he’s the wild card in this game, especially after the Randy Moss-ish adjustment to Tom Brady’s pass last Thursday against the Colts that resulted in his first touchdown catch as a Patriot. But can he be a wild card if the Patriots are pretty much counting on him at this point? The Patriots offense is in full now, with Julian Edelman back, Rob Gronkowski benefitting from others needing to be accounted for, Chris Hogan and Phillip Dorsett sliding into more fitting roles, and Sony Michel and James White forming an electric running back tandem. But to be able to match the Chiefs’ firepower, the Patriots might also are require another huge step forward from Gordon in his third game as a Patriot. His acclimation has been outwardly smooth, but the NFL Network’s Mike Giardi reported Friday that he did run a couple of wrong routes against the Colts. Tom Brady doesn’t tolerate that for long from his receivers, but Gordon is a unique case. The Patriots need him to eliminate the mistakes, because they need him, period.

Josh Gordon celebrated his first TD catch with the Patriots in the win over the Colts.

GRIEVANCE OF THE WEEK

The week’s grievance comes in the form of a story-time interlude. As the great philosopher Homer Simpson once said, I like stories . . .

So, when I was growing up in the late ’70s and early ’80s, I was smitten with the “Air Coryell’’ San Diego Chargers, especially receiver John Jefferson and tight end Kellen Winslow. Why? If you remember them, you don’t need to be told why. They were almost always on national TV (and sometimes in those days, the Patriots were blacked out locally), playing in the 4 p.m. NBC game in that San Diego sunshine on the dirt infield of Jack Murphy Stadium. For a kid who was barely 10 and freezing his LL Bean boots off in New England, it was an enticing and foreign scene. I mean, lightning bolt helmets! Who could top that?

I came back to the Patriots not long after the Chargers traded Jefferson to the Packers and future Hall of Famer Fred Dean to the Niners and I got my first taste of cynicism. Stanley Morgan became my new favorite, and then, for some reason, Derrick Ramsey. But I clinged to my point in one argument I always had with my bemused dad: Kellen Winslow was a much better tight end than his guy, Russ Francis.

His case was that Winslow was just a receiver, while Francis did it all — he could catch, run, and sure as heck block. It’s a case I understood more as I got older, though Winslow delivered an all-time gutsy performance in an epic divisional playoff game between the Chargers and Dolphins in January 1982 and eventually made the Hall of Fame. Francis was a supreme all-around tight end — Howard Cosell famously called him “All-World’’ on Monday Night Football, a stage where he was always at his best — and probably would have had a Canton case himself had he been laser-focused on football or played in an offense that utilized him more.

Either way, they were both great. The same can be said for the Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski and the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce, who have been the matter of much debate this week regarding who is a better player. It’s an easy argument, but honestly, it’s not one that should exist at all. Because here’s the thing: Kelce has a decent facsimile of that Winslow skill-set. He’s a terrific receiver. And Gronkowski? He’s what you get when a player has the skill-set of both Winslow and Francis, with a whole lot of vintage Mark Bavaro mixed in.

Gronk and Kelce are both excellent players. They play the same position. But please, let’s cease with comparing them. There’s never been another tight end quite like Gronk. Kelce is a great receiver. Gronk is great at that, and everything else the position demands.

Tight end Travis Kelce is a great receiver, but let’s stop comparing his overall game to Rob Gronkowski’s.

PREDICTION, OR ANDY REID IS THE SECOND-BEST COACH IN FOOTBALL, RIGHT?

Bill Belichick, of course, is the best coach in football. But his early reputation was built primarily on his defensive acumen, most famously for the game plan the Giants used to slow Jim Kelly and the high-flying Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV. That reputation still exists, and it should. The Patriots have been in the top 10 in fewest points allowed every years since 2012, finishing first in the league in 2016, and they don’t get enough credit for making so many key stops in the Super Bowl wins over the Seahawks and Falcons But anecdotally, it feels like it’s been years since they’ve had a truly dominant, we’re-gonna-win-this-one-for-ya-Tom defense. And even though they’re 10th in points allowed this year, they’re 16th in total yards allowed, and it’s hard to envision this smart but hardly fleet group keeping up with the Chiefs. The Patriots are going to have to run the ball effectively and consistently convert on third down. Their best hope defensively is that Mahomes — who, again, is just six starts into his career — sees something unfamiliar or feels the weight of the first truly big game of his career and makes the kind of gambler’s mistakes that he was accused of committing at Texas Tech, when he threw 25 picks in 25 games over his final two seasons. That seems like a lot to ask from this Patriots defense against such a dynamic and versatile offensive team. If there’s ever a time for Belichick, in collaboration with Brian Flores, to add another clip to his Defensive Genius highlight reel, this is it. I just can’t convince myself that it will be. Chiefs 41, Patriots 38.

Bill Belichick could use another legend-building game plan to slow the high-flying Chiefs.