He returned late in the second quarter prior to Tom Brady’s one-yard touchdown run and played the remainder of the game.
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Tom Brady led New England with 302 yards and 2 TDs to secure a 27-20 win over Kansas City. Although the Chiefs made it close late, the patriots proved why they are still the cream of the crop in the AFC and why they are the first team since the Raiders to reach 5 straight AFC Championship games.
With Saturday win, Brady will be advancing to his 10th career AFC Championship game.
“You’ve got to be able to take advantage of that when it comes”, Smith said.
To hinge the fate of the Patriots struggling offense on the return of one player might not have been fair.
With the Patriots in sub-packages essentially the entire game, the Chiefs were also able to pick up a lot of big gains on the ground. New England is now 18-4 at home during the postseason and will play the victor of Sunday’s Denver Broncos-Pittsburgh Steelers game.
In spite of the relative closeness of the final score, this game was truly never in doubt. “We didn’t do too well down the stretch and we were playing against a team that won 11 games in a row. We’re going to need to be sharper”.
The score came moments after Brady scrambled for 10 yards to get to the 1; video review upheld the ruling that he went out of bounds just short of the goal line.
“It’s a fine line of getting into the best play and just keep going at the line of scrimmage”, Smith said.
“It’s pretty cool, pretty cool – it’s hard to do man”, Brady said after leading his defending champions to a 27-20 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Saturday’s divisional playoff. Rob Gronkowski, reportedly hobbling with back and knee injuries, was his usual dominant self with seven receptions and two touchdowns. They wobbled into the postseason losing four of their final six regular-season games. But they learned what many other teams already have: It’s hard to win in New England – and even more difficult in the postseason. “The chemistry was clicking”. The Patriots advanced to their fifth consecutive AFC championship game.
One of the hallmarks of a successful Patriots playoff team is a dominant edge when it comes to turnovers, and New England once again made no mistakes when it came to protecting the football.
Kansas City head coach Andy Reid didn’t seem to notice the ineptitude, per Adam Teicher of ESPN.com.
“This is a good experience for us”.
“It took everything we got”, Brady said.
“But I’m proud of my guys”. “The last couple of games they had run the ball quite a little bit, and this one here, they came out and threw nearly every down in the first half”.
Kansas City settled for two field goals by Cairo Santos and missed a prime opportunity for a touchdown shortly before halftime when the Chiefs got down to the Patriots 9.
The Patriots started off the game looking like the Patriots we saw in the first half of the season. With 2:12 left in the third quarter the Chiefs cut the Patriots’ lead to 21-13.
Four plays later, unable to find an open receiver, Brady sprinted – sort of – for the corner of the end zone.
The Patriots took a 14-3 lead after Tom Brady dove into the end zone on a one yard run.
“I think he’s worked his tail off”, Brady said. The Patriots stuff the play for a loss.
NOTES Jones started the game, six days after he wandered to the local police station, shirtless and confused.
And to follow up on the totally weird, defensive end Chandler Jones was indeed in the Patriots’ starting lineup. Brady’s first touchdown was an 8-yard strike to Rob Gronkowski early in the first quarter.
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The Chiefs offense couldn’t get their passing together like Brady, as their quarterback Alex Smith threw a career high of 50 passes, but averaged less than 5 yards per attempt.
