Road to Super Bowl LIV: Chapter 1

They are two favorites to win the AFC and both are 2-0. Beyond the Chiefs and Patriots, the Ravens and Bills are also undefeated.

This is the first time being a Super Bowl favorite for me, and there's something I didn't expect. When you have a superior team, you're wary of wonky. What I mean by wonky is mostly weather-related. Like you don't want to play a fog game, or a snow game, when you're a stronger team. 

In their first two games here are the wonky elements they faced:

• 120+ degrees on the sidelines in Jacksonville
• playing without your #1 receiver
• your MVP quarterback sprains his ankle
• surprise facing against Gardener Minshew
• playing football on a baseball diamond
• your starting LT suffers a injury in Friday's practice and misses a game
• two straight games on the road

Bottom line: the Chiefs are 2-0 and already knocked out two road games. They will get a harder test against the Ravens in week 3, but this season is already shaping up like we expected: the regular season is going to be a race between the Patriots and Chiefs to see who can have homefield advantage for the AFC Championship on January 19, 2020. 

The Patriots proved last year they could go on the road to win that game. The Chiefs have a lot more to prove. 

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Do you know Patrick Mahomes? He's the guy that I wrote this about, a year before he became the starter: "The Chiefs best chance to win a Super Bowl in my lifetime is the next 4 years."

Anyways, he's pretty good.

He's already the Chiefs franchise leader in games with 400 passing yards. (He's played 19 games by the way.)

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Here's a list of longest streaks of road games with 3 passing TDs:

Mahomes 7
Brady 6
Favre 5 (hall of fame)
Marino 5 (hall of fame)
Blanda 5 (hall of fame)

Mahomes' streak is active by the way. His next road game is against the Lions.

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With the win, the Chiefs secured a winning record against the Raiders at the Oakland Coliseum...forever.

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Here's a list of most games with 300 pass yards and 3 TDs in first 40 games:

Mahomes 6
Marino 5 (hall of fame)
Warner 5 (hall of fame)

This one is especially funny because Mahomes has only played 19. Even Hall of Famers aren't this good this early.

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Here's a list of most yards in a quarter:

Brees 294 (2008)
Mahomes 278 (today)

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Mahomes is currently on pace for 6,592 yards and 56 touchdowns.

As a reminder, Patrick Mahomes in his first season as a starting quarterback, became the 2nd QB in NFL History to throw 50 touchdowns and 5000 passing yards. Peyton Manning did it once in 2013. Brady, Brees, Marino, Rodgers have never done it. Mahomes is 1 for 1 on the 50/5000 club.

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So this started as a post about the Chiefs and in turned into a list of facts showing how incredible Mahomes is. (Which I'm not apologizing for.) But back to this season...

The Patriots have a soft schedule. They should go 8-0 without too much trouble. And then they just added Antonio Brown who will know the playbook and have chemistry with Brady by the end of the season. They have five tough games and then close with 3 easier ones. So despite a perfect Chiefs start, the Pats are still the favorites to have homefield advantage. It's a long road to glory, but Kansas City is on their way.