Pats PostGame Notebook: Hail to the Chiefs...Sort Of

Patriots QB #12 Tom Brady tries to recollect himself after getting swarmed by the Chiefs defense (Photo courtesy of the Boston Globe)

Ryan L. Fox

In Week 6 of the 2018 NFL, the New England Patriots hosted the Kansas City Chiefs for a Sunday Night Prime Time game. After 60 minutes of offensive fireworks, the Patriots emerged victorious with on the final score of 43-40. Then in the AFC Championship game, it was the Chiefs turn to host the Patriots. It took overtime for the game’s completion but in the end, it was the Patriots who emerged victorious on the final score of 37-31.
 
Now the Patriots and Chiefs met up in Foxborough for a Week 14 showdown. With AFC Playoff seeding on the line, the two teams slugged it out on the gridiron. But when the final gun was sound, only one team stood tall and with their playoff destiny in their own hands. 

Game Recap
The Chiefs won the opening coin toss but elected to defer to the 2nd half, giving the Patriots the ball to start off the game.
 
Patriots KR/RB Brandon Bolden brought the kickoff out of the endzone and up to the New England 17 as QB Tom Brady lead the offense onto the field. After two consecutive runs by RB Sony Michel, the Patriots were faced with a 3rd and 7 at their own 20. Brady looked over his right for WR Mohammed Sanu as the pass went awry. However, Chiefs CB Breshaud Breeland was draped over Sanu and incurred an 8-yard pass interference penalty. With a fresh set of downs, the Patriots offense went back to the run for two consecutive plays.
 
Faced with another 3rd down situation, Brady looked deep for WR Phillip Dorsett. The pass went incomplete, but the flags came flying out for another pass interference penalty. This time, it was on Chiefs CB Charvarius Ward for 31 yards down to the Kansas City 37. Then on first down, Brady handed the ball off to RB James White. White then flicked the ball back to Brady, who flung the ball down the field for a wide open WR Julian Edelman for a touchdown to complete 37-yard flea flicker play. Patriots K Nick Folk, re-signed just a few days earlier, came on and booted the PAT through to give the Patriots the early 7-0 lead with 12:34 left in the 1st quarter.
 
On the ensuing kickoff, Chiefs KR/WR Mecole Hardman brought the ensuing kickoff out of the endzone and up to the Kansas City 30. From there, QB Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense came onto the field for their first possession of the game. After a 1-yard run by RB LeSean McCoy and an incomplete pass, the Chiefs were faced with a 3rd and 9 from their own 31. Mahomes dropped back to pass, looking for Demarcus Robinson. Instead, he found Patriots CB J.C. Jackson, who returned the ball back to the Kansas City 40.
 
Fortunately for the Chiefs offense, the defense stymied the Patriots offense and forced them to punt.
 
The Chiefs got the ball back on their own 17 as Mahomes and the offense came back onto the field. After 2 straight incomplete passes, Mahomes found WR Sammy Watkins for a 23-yard deep throw and a first down at the Kansas City 40. After an 8-yard run by McCoy, Mahomes found WR Byron Pringle for a 14-yard pass up the left side down to the New England 38.
 
After a holding penalty made it 1st and 20 from the New England 40, Mahomes found WR Tyreek Hill for 5 yards and then TE Travis Kelce for 13 yards. Facing a 3rd and 2 from the New England 30, Mahomes tried to find Watkins short over the left side. The pass went incomplete as the Chiefs decided to attempt the 48-yard field goal.  K Harrison Butker booted the ball through the uprights as the Chiefs cut into the Patriots’ lead, 7-3 with 7:12 left in the 1st quarter.
 
After Bolden brought the ensuing kickoff to the New England 22, the Patriots offense got back onto the field. After a 3-yard run by RB Rex Burkhead, Brady found TE Matt LaCosse for a 6-yard pass to set up 3rd and short. A 3-yard run by Michel then gave the Patriots 1st and 10 at their own 35. After a 1-yard run by Burkhead, Brady found Sanu for a 13-yard pass to the New England 48 and then followed that up with an 10-yard pass to Edelman down to the Kansas City 42.
 
The Patriots then ran off 3 consecutive running plays, getting down to the Kansas City 30. The Chiefs defense was then able to bunker down as they stopped the Patriots advance at their own 23. Facing a 4th and 3, the Patriots decided to go for the field goal. Folk came on to attempt the 41-yard field goal try. Instead, Chiefs DE Tanoh Kpassagnon blasted past Patriots OT Marshall Newhouse and blocked the kick. Ward scooped the ball up at the Kansas City 35 an brought it back to the Kansas City 42.
 
With the ball in good field position, the Chiefs offense came onto the field. After two straight runs by McCoy, the Chiefs were faced with 3rd and short at midfield. Mahomes dropped back to pass, only to get sacked by Patriots DT Adam Butler. But the sack was waived off due to a defensive holding by Patriots CB Stephon Gilmore, giving the Chiefs an automatic first down. But two plays later and a quarter change, Patriots DE Deatrich Wise was able to sack Mahomes for a 12-yard loss on 2nd and 7 back to the Kansas City 46 to open up the 2nd quarter.
 
On 3rd and 19, Mahomes found Hill for a 21-yard pass down to the New England 33 to keep the drive alive. After a questionable ‘blindside block’ and incomplete pass, the Chiefs were faced with a 2nd and 25 at the New England 48. Mahomes found Hardman deep over the left side as the wideout spun around and outran the Patriots secondary and into the endzone. Butker booted the PAT through the uprights as the Chiefs took the lead 10-7 with 13:04 left in the 2nd quarter.
 
The Patriots got the ball back as the offense came back onto the field, starting at their own 25. But on the first play from scrimmage, Brady dropped back and tried to find LaCosse. Instead, Breeland picked off Brady at the New England 39 and brought it back to the New England 35.
 
From there, the Chiefs offense went to work. After a defensive holding call on the Patriots defense to start the drive off, the Chiefs were able to run off 5 yards on 2 plays. On 3rd and 5 at the New England 24, Mahomes found Kelce for a 20-yard catch and run over the middle down to the New England 4. Three plays later on 3rd and goal from the 4, the Chiefs were in a Wildcat formation. Kelce took the snap and ran it up the middle for 4-yards and the touchdown. Butker booted PAT through as the Chiefs lead grew to 17-7 with 9:33 left in the quarter.
 
After White brought the ensuing kickoff back to the New England 31, the Patriots offense came out onto the field trying to keep up with the Chiefs. White opened the drive up with a 21 yards on 2 running plays down to the Kansas City 48. Brady then found Edelman for an 18-yard pass down to the New England 30 and that was followed with a 3-yard run to White down to the Kansas City 27. After two straight incomplete passes, the Patriots were faced with a 4th and 7 at the Kansas City 27. Coach Bill Belichick elected to go for it but Brady’s pass to Edelman went wide as the Patriots turned it over on downs to the Chiefs.
 
The two teams then exchanged punts with one another as the Chiefs got the ball back at their own 13. Mahomes opened the drive up with a 19-yard pass to RB Darwin Thompson down to the Kansas City 32. After another defensive holding penalty on the Patriots, the Chiefs were faced with 1st and 10 at their own 37. Mahomes found Kelce for a 12-yard pass and then followed that up with a quick 16-yard catch-and-run to Hill down to the New England 35 two plays later. The Chiefs were able to get all the way down to the New England 13, but the Patriots defense held up. With a little over a minute left in the half, the Chiefs decided to kick the field goal. Butker booted the 31-yard attempt through the uprights as the Chiefs lead grew to 20-7 with 59 seconds left in the 2nd quarter.
 
On the ensuing kickoff, Bolden brought the ball back to the New England 26. However Chiefs LB Dorian O’Daniel was flagged for an unnecessary roughness penalty, giving the Patriots the ball at their own 41 with 54 seconds left in the quarter with no timeouts. The Chiefs defense ended up holding the Patriots offense in check as time ran out.
 
Both teams then went into halftime, getting some Gatorade, resting up, made some adjustments, and got ready for the 2nd half.
 
The 2nd half opened up as the Chiefs got the ball to begin the 3rd quarter.
 
They began their first drive of 2nd half on their own 25. After a 2-yard run by McCoy, Mahomes found Kelce for an 18-yard pass to the Kansas City 45. That was followed up with a 13-yard run by McCoy down to the New England 42. The Chiefs then continued to drive down the field, including converting a 4th and inches along the way. They got all the way down to the New England 31 as on 3rd and 10 from there, Mahomes pass to Watkins only went for 8 yards down to the New England 23. Facing a 4th and 2, the Chiefs decided to go for the field goal. Butker booted the 41-yard attempt through the uprights to make it 23-7 with close to 8:47 left in the 3rd quarter.
 
After forcing the Patriots to punt, the Chiefs got the ball on their own 44. However, they were forced to punt as P Dustin Colquitt was ready to boot the ball. Instead, ST/S Nate Ebner burst through untouched as he blocked the kick. The ball rolled out of bounds at the Kansas City 19, giving the Patriots their best starting field position of the game.
 
After a 9-yard run by White, the Patriots were faced with 2nd and 1 from the Kansas City 10. Brady handed the ball off to Bolden, who ran around the right end and dived over the pylon for the score. The Patriots elected to go for the 2-PT conversion but White was stuffed up the middle. So the score was 23-9 with 4:23 left in the 3rd quarter.
 
After Hardman returned the ball to the Kansas City 29, Mahomes tried to help get the offense back on track. After back-to-back runs of 3 yards, the Chiefs were faced with 3rd and 4 from their own 35. Mahomes found Watkins over the middle for 5 yards for what seemed to be a first down. The Patriots challenged the spot but the ruling was upheld.
 
With a new set of downs, the Chiefs continued to drive down the field. They were then faced with a 3rd and 2 on the New England 37. Mahomes found Kelce over the left side for what appeared to be a first down. But Kelce ended up going backwards and was tackled down. But as Kelce was going down, the ball was punched out by Patriots FS Devin McCourty and scooped up by CB Stephon Gilmore. But the refs originally blew the play dead, saying that Kelce was down by contact. Belichick challenged the play, saying that Kelce fumbled the ball before he was down by contact. After further review, the refs overturned their original call of ‘down by contact’ and awarded the ball to the Patriots at their own 43. But everybody was livid in Foxborough due to the fact that if the play continued on, Gilmore would have had a touchdown.
 
The Patriots ended the 3rd quarter with an end-around run by Edelman for 8 yards to the New England 43.
 
When the 4th quarter began, the Patriots continued to drive down the field. They got down to the Kansas City 39 before being faced with a 3rd and short. Brady looked deep to WR Jakobi Meyers but the pass went incomplete. Luckily for the Patriots, Meyers drew a 24-yard pass interference penalty on CB Kendall Fuller. That gave the Patriots a 1st and 10 at the Kansas City 15.
 
On the next play, Brady looked for WR N’Keal Harry over the left side for a quick pass. Harry seemingly was able to outrun the Chiefs defenders and dive over the pylon for a touchdown. But the refs ruled Harry had stepped out at the Kansas City 3 and because the Patriots used up all their challenges, they couldn’t challenge the play. The Patriots were then pushed all the way back to the Kansas City 11 before being faced with a 4th and goal from there. The Patriots ended up settling for a field goal as Folk booted the 29-yard attempt through the uprights to make it 23-16 with 11:40 left in the game.
 
The two teams then traded punts with one another as time continued to dwindle down in the 4th quarter.
 
With a little over 5 minutes left in the game, the Patriots got the ball back on their own 32.
 
The offense opened up with a trick play that caught the Kansas City defense off guard. Brady took the snap and immediately handed it off to White. White then threw a quick pass to Meyers, who chugged all the way down to the Kansas City 33 for 35 yards. The Patriots then got down to the Kansas City 29 before being faced with a 4th and 6. Taking matters into his own hands, Brady scrambled over the left side for a 17-yard run to give the Patriots a first down at the Kansas City 12.
 
After taking a 2-yard loss on a pass to White, Brady’s next pass went incomplete as he overthrew LaCosse in the back of the endzone. Then on 3rd and 12, Brady found Edelman over the middle for a 9-yard gain to the Kansas City 5. Facing with a 4th and 3 at the 5, the Patriots decided to go for the touchdown. But Brady’s pass for Edelman in the endzone was broken up by Breeland, sealing the victory for the Chiefs.
 
Mahomes simply ran the victory formation 3 times to run the clock out.
 
When the clock read 00:00, the Kansas City Chiefs ran off the field to celebrate their 23-16 over the New England Patriots. But for Pats fans and media all over New England, they could only curse and shout about how the referees cost them the game. Nevertheless, the loss proved costly. With the Ravens beating the Buffalo Bills earlier in the day, the Patriots fell a full game back of them for the No. 1 playoff seed in the AFC
 
Patriot Statistical Standouts
WR Julian Edelman: 1 carry for 8 yards (8.0 yards per carry), 8 catches (on 12 targets) for 95 yards and 1 TD
 
LB Jamie Collins: 8 tackles (5 solo, 3 assist), 1 pass defended
 
FS Devin McCourty: 9 tackles (7 solo, 2 assist), 1 forced fumble
 
CB Stephon Gilmore: 5 tackles (4 solo, 1 assist), 1 fumble recovered, 1 pass defended
 
CB J.C. Jackson: 2 tackles (2 solo, 0 assist), 1 INT, 1 pass defended
 
Numbers! Numbers! Numbers!
33 – The number of punts P Jake Bailey has made that landed inside the 20, a franchise record
 
21 – The total amount of interceptions made by the Patriots defense, the best in the NFL in 2019
 
4 – The number of blocked punts the Patriots have for the season, a new franchise record
 
6,400 – The number of career receiving yards for WR Julian Edelman, putting him 4th all-time in franchise history
 
536 – The career number of regular season touchdown passes by QB Tom Brady, putting him just 3 behind former Colts & Broncos QB Peyton Manning for most all-time (539)
 
8 – The number of consecutive games this season where Tom Brady has had a QB rating under 100.0, the longest streak in his entire 20-year career
 
.400 – The winning percentage of the Patriots this season against teams .500 or better in 2019 (2-3)
 
Interesting Tidbits of the Game
- The Patriots allowed 17 points to the Chiefs and scored 0 points themselves in the 2nd quarter, which many considered to be the worst 2nd quarter in Gillette Stadium history
 
- With the Patriots ranked as the #1 scoring defense in the NFL, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is now 3-0 against #1 scoring defenses in his career
 
- With a loss to the Chiefs, the Patriots are now 0-3 against the other AFC Divisional leaders this season (Baltimore Ravens of the AFC North, Houston Texans of the AFC South (for now))
 
- This was the third time this season that the Patriots defense have allowed 20 or more points in a single game in 2019 (0-3)
 
EquipmentGate
Before the two teams took to the field, the biggest story surrounding the game wasn’t the fact that it was a rematch of the AFC Championship game. Rather, it was the what happened before the start of the game.
 
Prior to kickoff, the Kansas City Chiefs were facing a with an unfortunate dilemma. Although they were able to get their players to Gillette Stadium, their equipment was a different story. Rather, a majority of the team’s equipment made its way to Newwark, New Jersey instead of Foxborough, Massachusetts.
 
There was an actual mad scramble to get the missing equipment from Newark to Foxborough. The reason why was that 35 Chiefs players didn’t have their playing gear (i.e. shoulder pads, helmets, etc.) and were 'underdressed' for the game. If they didn’t get their equipment prior to the 4:25 p.m. EST kickoff, the Chiefs would have had to forfeit their game against the Patriots.
 
Luckily for the Chiefs, their equipment made it to Gillette an hour and 40 minutes before kickoff. Still, imagine what the headlines and fallout would have been if the equipment hadn’t reached Foxborough in time. The Chiefs could have now only been the laughingstock in all of the NFL but in all of North American sports. Getting blown out or choking away a game would pale in comparison to forfeiting a game because your equipment got sent to the wrong city.
 
Fox Fist Bump
Well for the first time in 2019, there will be no Fox Fist Bump awarded to anybody. 

The Meatball of the Week
The Meatball of the Week is gonna be given to two non-Patriots personnel.
 
First, we got the idiotic equipment crew from the Chiefs.
 
Prior to the game, there was a panic as the Chiefs’ equipment got shipped to Newark, New Jersey instead of Foxborough, Massachusetts. Seriously, how the hell could somebody make such a blunder as to having the team’s equipment sent to the wrong city. Inexcusable and unacceptable. You almost cost your team the game with that stupid mistake.
 
Then we got the refs.
 
Why the refs?
 
Oh because of a bunch of questionable calls.
 
First you had the Stephon Gilmore fumble recovery blown dead because ‘it looked like Kelce was down by contact’ even though replays showed that clearly Kelce had fumbled the ball way before he was down by contact.
 
Then later on, you had that N’Keal Harry play where the he was called out of bounds at the Kansas City 3-yard line even though his left foot (the foot in question) was clearly still in bounds.
 
If the refs were smart enough, they would have let those plays play out, which would more likely end with a Patriots score. Then they would take a look at the review because all scoring plays would be under review to make sure that they were legitimate plays and rule whether or not somebody was ‘down by contact’ or ‘out of bounds’.
 
I’m by far not a Pats fan but even I had to admit, they got hosed on those plays by the refs. They would have been able to score on each of those, which would have drastically changed the outcome of the game.

If you got non-Pats fans saying that the refs cost the Pats the game, then you know you screwed up big time as a referee. Unacceptable by that crew and clearly we won’t be seeing them anytime soon in the postseason.
 
Play of the Game
The Foxborough Screw Job (According to Pats Fans)

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