Brady got his 9th career 300-yard passing postseason game, tied for first all-time. “It’s hard to do”. Andy Reid taking his time with the final drive, leaving his team not time to get the ball back after making it a one possession game, was just one part of his weird playcalling that didn’t cost the Chiefs the game, but didn’t really help them.
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The Patriots will meet the victor of Monday’s (AEST) game between Pittsburgh and Denver for a spot in Super Bowl 50 as they try to become the first repeat National Football League champs since they did it in 2003-04.
New England will face the victor of Sunday’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Denver Broncos next Sunday for a berth in the Super Bowl.
Patriots fan certainly would prefer to not see Brady taking any more big shots near the goal line. Gronkowski made seven catches for 82 yards and two touchdowns. He also recovered an onside kick after Kansas City cut the deficit to 27-20 with just over one minute left.
Brady tossed two touchdowns and rushed for another, Rob Gronkowski caught a pair of TDs to erase any injury concerns and receiver Julian Edelman ended a two-month absence from a broken foot to put New England at full strength.
“It’s been a unique season, a lot of new things have happened this season, kind of like tonight”, said Manning, who replaced Osweiler in the season finale, leading the Broncos to a win over San Diego to secure the No. 1 seed.
The opponent Saturday was the Kansas City Chiefs, but if this Patriots season is indeed a mission of revenge against the NFL’s leadership, Saturday’s assignment was unquestionably to advance to a fifth consecutive AFC Championship Game.
Then Reid said, “We wanted to get a play off. There was 2:20 on the clock”. “So, this is a good experience for us”.
After Andy Reid’s team went three-and-out in the second quarter despite starting a drive at the Patriots 36-yard line, Brady was flawless on New England’s 98-yard scoring drive capped by his one-yard plunge into the end zone.
Palmer connected with Larry Fitzgerald on a 75-yard pass play to set up a 5-yard “shovel pass” up the middle to Fitzgerald for the winning points after Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers made an wonderful 41-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the fourth quarter to force overtime.
The Chiefs remained pesky and rallied with a 12-play, 80-yard drive that culminated with quarterback Alex Smith throwing a 10-yard touchdown pass to Albert Wilson. The Chiefs managed to score a touchdown to close the gap to 27-20 but with 1:13 left it seemed too late. Early in the game, he already caught two passes that included his first touchdown grab. The Patriots were without Gronkowski for three playoff games from 2012-2013 and they lost two of them.
With less than a minute left in the game, the excited crowd started chanting “Brady, Brady, Brady” and celebrating what they were confidence would be a win. He was asked what it meant to be back in the AFC Championship Game after all the adversity the team faced this year. The Chiefs didn’t allow more than 22 points in any game and yielded 11.6 per game during their winning streak, also forcing at least one turnover in each game.
“We went hurry-up offense”, Reid said.
“At the end of the day it comes down to execution and they executed a little better than we did”, said KC punt returner Frankie Hammond Jr.
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So many questions last week that the New England Patriots answered thoroughly on Saturday.
