Boomer Esiason: Brady Will Have To Be At Top Of His Game Vs. Chiefs
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Patriots will kick off their postseason Saturday night at Gillette, hosting one of the hottest teams in the NFL right now.
The Pats will take on the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional round, a team that won their 11th straight with a 30-0 win over the Houston Texans in the Wild Card round. The Chiefs forced five turnovers against Brian Hoyer and the Texans on Saturday, and were second in the NFL with 29 takeaways during the regular season.
Boomer Esiason of WFAN and The NFL Today joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich on Monday to break down the upcoming matchup, and said it will all depend on what Tom Brady and his array of weapons can do against a defense that allowed just 17.9 points per game during the regular season.
"The rub in this game is how the Patriots offense deals with Chiefs defense," said Boomer. "The Chiefs defensive coordinator is Bob Sutton, who has been around a long time. He was a part of Rex Ryan and Eric Mangini's defense when they were with the Jets. He has had success against Tom Brady and we saw that last year in [Week 4] of the regular season. It isn't the best matchup for the Patriots, but what it all comes down to for the Patriots is are they healthy? Are Julian Edelman, Sebastian Vollmer and Dont'a Hightower going to play? If they have all their guys on the field and are ready to rock and roll, I can see the Patriots do what the Packers did [Sunday]: Flip the switch and play like you haven't played the last six or seven weeks and really put a beat down on a Chiefs team that has been struggling offensively.
"I know they beat the Texans pretty soundly, but a lot of that was in large part of their defense getting turnovers and Alex Smith only having one turnover himself," said Boomer. "How many times did you see Hoyer be inaccurate on third down? That's not who Tom Brady is. Brady will have to be at the top of his game, but if the Patriots are healthy I don't see the Chiefs going in and scoring more than 17 points."
Boomer also touched on all the wild action from Wild Card weekend, including an "embarrassing" end to Steelers-Bengals on Saturday night:
