“It’s pretty cool. It’s hard to do, man. You’ve got to grind throughout the entire year”. While they kept the ball on the ground in that game, running with marginal success, star quarterback Tom Brady came out slinging against the Chiefs on Saturday.
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“It’s just football, so there’s a lot of emotions, especially in this game”, Brady said of the exchange with his offensive coordinator.
On the first drive of the game Rob Gronkowski opened the scoring with a nine-yard touchdown reception, capping an 80-yard drive and giving New England an early edge they would never relinquish.
If the Panthers win, the Cardinals will have to travel to Charlotte for the NFC championship game and a chance to play in Super Bowl 50.
“We didn’t worry about what’s happened in the past or what’s going to happen in the future”. After a Kansas City field goal and two punts by each team, the Patriots drove 98 yards to take a 14-3 lead on Tom Brady’s 6th postseason rushing touchdown of his career.
“Anytime the Clydesdale gets running, the crowd goes insane”, Edelman said.
“We’re tough”, said receiver Julian Edelman, who returned Saturday from a two-month absence because of a broken foot to catch 10 passes for 100 yards.
Kansas City made the game closer on a 1-yard touchdown run by Charcandrick West with 1:13 left. We’ve got Gronkowski back, Edelman back, and Amendola back. “The coaches work hard, the players work hard, and it’s very gratifying to see those kinds of results pay off for all the hard work”. This one went up to 11, cruising over the Houston Texans for the Chiefs’ first playoff win in 22 years. The win sends New England to their fifth straight AFC title game.
“We didn’t do anything with that field position”, Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith said. “So, this is a good experience for us”.
Then with time expiring, an off-balance Rodgers sent a speculative 41-yard pass into the crowded end zone, where Jeff Janis took the catch to make it 20-19 and the conversion tied it.
The Patriots began strongly with Brady engineering a fluent opening drive that ended with Gronkowski grabbing an eight-yard touchdown pass to make it 7-0.
Patriots receiver and punt returner Danny Amendola was flagged for a hit on Kansas City’s Jamell Fleming midway through the second quarter.
On the next drive, Dezman Moses tried to take it out on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and was called for roughing the passer. “We haven’t lost since mid-October, and I don’t think we’re going to lose tonight”.
Stephen Gostkowski, who set the franchise scoring record when he kicked the extra point following New England’s touchdown on the first possession of the game, also kicked two field goals.
NOTES Jones started the game, six days after he wandered to the local police station, shirtless and confused. With the Chiefs down 14-6 and on the move during the first drive of the second half, Knile Davis fumbled.
Smith finally got the Chiefs into the end zone when he hit Albert Wilson on a 10-yard pass that made it 21-13 with two minutes left in the third quarter.
That pattern has repeated itself for the New England Patriots since 2001, in the regular season and the playoffs, in memorable games and more rudimentary ones.
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Earlier in the game, when Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” was blasting over the stadium loudspeakers, the crowd – and even some of the players – started singing along when footage of Jon Bon Jovi (who was in owner Bob Kraft’s luxury box) singing to the song and pumping his fists in the air were shown on the jumbo screens.
