First, let me start off by saying I hate the Patriots. Second, let me say I expected more from my Chiefs. I predicted a loss to my Chiefs, with a predicted score of 38-34 in favor of the Pats. The final score of the game was 37-31 in OT, but the score did not reflect the game at all.
I am choosing to start my recap with the Patriots, because although the score was close, the game was heavily dominated by the Patriots. My 4 tips for a Patriots victory in my last post included Run the Ball, Target Veteran Players, Pressure the Young Qb, and Keep Maho-mes in the Pocket. How did I know Bill and the Patriots would do these exact things. The Patriots running backs combined for 154 yards (on 41 attempts) with 4 touchdowns. To me that sounds like running the ball efficiently. Their 2 leading receivers were, you guessed it, Edelman and Gronkowski with a combined for 13 receptions and 175 yards. The Patriots defense had a total of 10 Qb hits and 4 sacks, meaning they brought pressure. And Mahomes was a shell of himself outside the pocket.
As much as I hate to say it, the Patriots flat out dominated the game. They doubled the Chiefs total first downs, total time of possession, and almost doubled their total yards. The Patriots controlled the game, and the Chiefs, and the Chiefs didn’t even deserve to go into overtime with them. This brings me to the disappointing Chiefs recap.
The Chiefs are a heavily talented team, and you’d think that 4 simple tasks that would lead to beating the notorious Patriots would be easily attainable, but we were all wrong. I said the Chiefs had to Stop the Run, Capitalize on Big Plays, Pressure Tom, and Don’t Turn the Ball O-ver. The Chiefs completed 1 of those 4. They, by no means stopped the run. They, also, barely had any big plays. Their 2 leading targets (Hill and Kelce) combined for 4 receptions for 65 yards and 1 touchdown. The defense showed all its flaws, by getting a total of 1 Qb hit (which ended up being a stupid penalty) and 0 sacks. Brady had all day to do whatever he wanted. The only thing the Chiefs got right was the turnover ratio. Tom threw 2 interceptions, which rarely happens, and we still managed to mess it up.
That final score was a reflection of “talent can only take you so far.” If the Chiefs would’ve done the little things better, they would probably be heading to Atlanta right now.
In the end, Bill got the best of the Chiefs. Man those words leave a sour taste in my mouth!
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