The New England Patriots took care of business by defeating the Kansas City Chiefs, 27-20, in the AFC Divisional Round on Saturday evening.
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“I know the Chiefs are on an 11-game winning streak, but that stops tonight, ” said Sam Roberts, 33, a structural engineer from Randolph.
In Kansas City’s first five trips into New England territory, the Chiefs managed just two field goals by Cairo Santos.
New England leads Kansas City 21-13 at the start of the fourth quarter.
Maddie Meyer/Getty Images Tom Brady’s intensity is on full display as he brings the Patriots back to the AFC Championship Game for the 10th time in his career.
“You always want to get a fast start, especially being together with everyone, Julian, Danny, everyone back out there on the field”, said Gronkowski.
The Cardinals held off the Packers in a game that got wild in the fourth quarter. He also recorded eight first downs, the type of contribution which is of the utmost value for a Patriots team that converted just 29 of 86 third-downs in the final six games of the regular season.
Watch the Denver Broncos face the Pittsburgh Steelers live on Sky Sports 2 HD from 9pm on Sunday.
So forget what you saw from the aching Patriots over their previous six games. “We didn’t do too well down the stretch and we were playing against a team that won 11 games in a row”. “We had momentum going and we were moving the ball”.
It was a record-setting night for Brady (his 30th career postseason game, and 17 career playoff games with at least two touchdowns or more thrown, both an National Football League record) and Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, who caught two touchdowns, and is now the NFL’s all-time leader in career touchdowns by a tight end. At the end of a 98-yard drive, Brady took off on a 10-yard run from the 11-yard line, diving for the goal line – “Anytime the Clydesdale gets running, the crowd goes insane”, Edelman said. Brady was then nearly was intercepted on a ball that deflected off Chiefs linebacker Tamba Hali to Edelman.
For as much consternation as there was about Edelman’s health, there was just as much involving tight end Rob Gronkowski, who was in and out of practice this week with knee and back injuries, with reports varying about the severity of his ailments and whether he did or did not have injections in his knee, or even whether he went to the hospital for his knee or for his back.
One of the Kansas City players then shouted that the Chiefs had called tails – and Wrolstad quickly corrected himself.
After spending the last two weeks recovering from knee and back injuries, Gronkowski had touchdown catches from 8 and 16 yards.
“I think coach Belichick does a great job of really just, like, brainwashing us”, defensive back Duron Harmon said this week.
Early in the second quarter, a Frankie Hammond Jr., 19-yard punt return gave the Chiefs, who were trailing 7-3, superb field position at the Patriots 36. Alex Smith threw the ball 50 times, but only had 246 yards and one touchdown. After a Steven Jackson run that lost 2 yards and a Chiefs timeout, the Patriots lined up in the shotgun showing they were willing to pass for the first and the win. If Denver wins, the Patriots will travel to Denver for the game. “We issued a statement, that’s it”.
“But I’m proud of my guys”. The reason the Patriots are such a good team is that they have so many weapons on offense which is all about ball control and keeping the other team’s offense off the field.
The Patriots recovered and made the Chiefs pay. And if that didn’t do it, the roughing-the-passer late hit on Brady by Dezman Moses did.
Four plays later, unable to find an open receiver, Brady took off for the corner of the end zone. Except for one quarterback hit, the Chiefs never got close enough to smell Brady’s aftershave.
Said Brady, “I thought we had a good plan”.
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“You concentrate on getting better at your fundamentals, techniques and those great players you’ve got to play against”, he said.
