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Matchups like this don’t come around very often. On one sideline, you’ve got the reigning Super Bowl champs: the Kansas City Chiefs, led by MVP favorite Patrick Mahomes. There have been a few bumps and bruises here and there, but Mahomes and his teammates have achieved a 12-1 record on the year so far. They could very well win out the rest of the regular season.
On the other side of the field stand the New Orleans Saints. And they’re preparing for Drew Brees to lead the huddle again after four weeks on the injured reserve list, in which his backup Taysom Hill went 3-1 to make his NFL quarterbacking debut, bettering the team’s record to 10-3. The Saints defense is still smarting from an ugly loss a week ago, and this is a must-win game for them to lock up the NFC South and compete for the No. 1 playoff seed.
ESPN Stats and research found that this game has one of the best combined winning percentages in NFL history for a late-season matchup; it’s the highest since 2005’s Week 16 tilt between the 13-1 Indianapolis Colts and 12-2 Seattle Seahawks. Both teams had already clinched their respective conference’s top seed and had little to play for, so it mellowed down quickly once the Colts pulled their starters and Shaun Alexander closed it out for Seattle.
That won’t be the case this week. A competitive AFC playoff picture means the Chiefs need a win nearly as badly as the Saints, who are mathematically alive in the race to clinch homefield advantage — and an all-too-valuable first-round bye week — with the 10-3 Green Bay Packers. Brees and Mahomes know this all too well, and they’ll each be ready to give their best shot in such a pivotal moment.
We rarely see games as good as Chiefs vs. Saints this late in the season. pic.twitter.com/jRRlmYs7cn
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) December 17, 2020
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