Kansas City answered with Alex Smith connecting on a 10-yard touchdown pass to Albert Wilson to lift the Chiefs within 21-13. The only complaint if you’re a Patriots fan is that New England had numerous opportunities to put this game out of reach in the 3rd and 4th quarter and failed to capitalize.
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The Patriots’ first 14 plays of the game were passes, and New England quarterback Tom Brady proceeded to short-pass the Chiefs silly.
The 11-game winning streak for Andy Reid’s team was brought to a jarring halt by Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman and the rest of the postseason veterans that fill the Patriots roster.
The magical football journey of the 2015 Chiefs came to an end Saturday evening at Gillette Stadium, the home of the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots.
Their efforts helped the Patriots secure a trip to the AFC championship game for the fifth consecutive year.
The Patriots (12-5) will oppose the victor of tomorrow’s AFC Divisional playoff matchup between the Denver Broncos and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Chiefs converted 12 of their 20 third down conversion attempts, which is the biggest reason they stayed in this game. Edelman went on to catch 10 passes for 100 yards in the victory.
But Edelman gives Brady a reliable outlet that allows him to get rid of the ball quickly, minimizing the disappearance of the running game and the holes in the offensive line. “We had a good week of practice and practice execution became game reality and it was good to get out there and get a catch on that first drive”.
Brady, drilled by a pair of Chiefs’ defenders on the play, seemed possessed on the sidelines as the Patriots’ challenged for what they believed was a touchdown.
After trading punts twice, the Patriots started on their 2 when punt returner Danny Amendola was flagged for a helmet-first hit to coverage man Jamell Fleming. “We’ll be a better team for it next year”.
So consider the following: If New England were to win the Super Bowl, it would have accomplished it with the least effective running attack – in terms of regular season rushing yards per contest, at least – of any Super Bowl-winning team since before 2000. “It’s pretty cool. It’s hard to do, man. You’ve got to grind throughout the entire year”. Gronkowski caught seven passes for 83 yards on Sunday. Neither team was flawless, but the Patriots showed that they could play game managers and let the Chiefs slowly defeat themselves.
“I thought I could try to make it. We were close”. Belichick and Brady advanced to their 10th AFC title game together. Gronkowski appeared to fool Chiefs safety Eric Berry, who made a move toward the line of scrimmage but then saw Gronkowski race past him to get open for the score. Brady threw for over 150 yards and a touchdown with no picks and was not sacked in the opening half, and he also ran for 10 yards and a touchdown. Starting at his own 2-yard line, Brady drove the Patriots offense 98 yards down the field, capping the drive off with a 1-yard sneak for a touchdown to make it 14-3.
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The result of the drive was a one yard touchdown run by Charcandrick West to cap a 15-play 80-yard snoozefest that left only 1:15 on the clock. Reid opted to go for it, and Smith’s fourth-down pass was complete to Avant, who made another contested catch for a first down. From there, the Pats used plays that would snatch precious seconds off the clock just in case the Chiefs got the ball back.
