Kareem Hunt Is Already Thinking About Patriots-Chiefs AFC Championship Rematch
By Matthew Geagan, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt wants another shot at the New England Patriots.
That should come as no surprise, with the only blemish on Kansas City's 8-1 record a 43-40 loss to the Patriots in Foxboro. And with the Patriots now sitting at 7-2 and just behind the Chiefs in the AFC standings, the two teams appear destined to meet again in the AFC Championship Game come January.
But that is still a few months away, and someone should probably let Hunt know that nothing good ever comes from looking too far ahead in the NFL. After Hunt found the end zone three times Sunday afternoon in a 37-21 win over the lowly Cleveland Browns, he told the NFL Network's Deion Sanders that he is very much looking ahead to that next matchup with the Patriots.
"It's going to be a heck of a game," Hunt told Sanders on "NFL GameDay" following Sunday's win. "I know they ready, and just know we coming ready. I wish we could have that game right now."
Where that game will be played (if it is in fact played between the Patriots and Chiefs) remains TBD. The Chiefs have a game up on the Patriots for home field advantage, but New England owns the tiebreaker given their win over KC. With half of the NFL season still to be played, a lot can happen between now and January, and this is likely a useless conversation to be having at the moment.
But Hill should feel great about the Kansas City offense. They are led by MVP favorite Patrick Mahomes and are averaging a league-high 36.3 points per game, and aren't showing any signs of slowing down. If the Patriots and Chiefs meet in the AFC title game in Kansas City, there's a good chance all that firepower on offense leads to a different outcome than we saw at Gillette Stadium in Week 6.
Kansas City players should be hoping to meet the Patriots again when it matters most. But that doesn't mean they have to start talking about it in Week 9. Just ask Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, who famously started talking about a postseason rematch with the Patriots weeks before the two had even met in the regular season. Tomlin said that matchup was going to be "part one," hinting the two teams would meet again in the playoffs.
The only problem was the Steelers lost that regular season matchup, and then didn't even make it to the postseason edition. Instead, they lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Divisional Round. In Pittsburgh. Oops.
Given how things have played out over the first nine weeks of this NFL season, it's certainly looking like it will be the Patriots and Chiefs battling for a spot in Super Bowl LIII in about two and a half months. But it's probably in their best interest for players to focus on the final half of the regular season before they start talking about the playoffs.
