KC Coach Andy Reid Hoping to Exorcise Playoff Demons With Win Over Patriots

The last time the Patriots went to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City in 2014, they were drubbed by Andy Reid’s Chiefs 41-14 and afterward New England was “on to Cincinnati.”

Since then, Kansas City has gone 1-2 against the Patriots including a playoff loss in 2015 and a loss earlier this season in New England in Week 6.

Overall, including his time coaching the Philadelphia Eagles, Reid is 0-2 against the Pats and head coach Bill Belichick in the playoffs and just 2-6 against New England overall.

He’s hoping to raise that record to 1-2 in the playoffs and 3-6 overall this weekend when the Chiefs host the Patriots at Arrowhead in the AFC Championship Game with the right to head to the Super Bowl on the line.

Should Reid be able to lead the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl in 49 years while stopping the hated Patriots from making it to their third in a row, all his past playoff and regular-season transgressions will be forgiven.

But Belichick does stand in the way.

“He [Belichick] and I played against each other so much that it’s ridiculous,” Reid said in an interview on Sports Radio 810 in Kansas City. “We used to play every year just about in the preseason at Philly, then we had games during the season obviously. So, we’ve done this whole deal once or twice. I have played him twice in a season – might have been preseason and in the regular season. I can’t remember playing him twice in regular games. But he’s got a lot up his sleeve, I’ve got a lot of my sleeve. It’s one of those deals. So, I don’t think playing him that early and playing him now is a major difference.”

Reid’s lone Super Bowl appearance – when the Eagles were by Belichick and the Patriots in 2005 – is the fewest of any coach with 20 playoff games.

“Reid showed against Indianapolis he’s learned from past playoff failures, eschewing a conservative approach from yesteryear for a go-for-broke mentality,” according to The Associated Press. “The Chiefs went for it on fourth down on four occasions, converted three of them, and set the tone early in a game they dominated the whole way.”