Pats back to earth
Chiefs ruin celebration with romp CHIEFS 42 PATRIOTS 27
FOXBORO — Bill Belichick hammered the point all offseason: Nothing the Patriots accomplished last season was worth a lick in 2017.
The Chiefs drove that point home last night, as they thoroughly humbled the reigning champions by a 42-27 count in the regular season opener. The pregame banner unveiling and Super Bowl LI celebration faded more quickly than the Pats’ early 10-point lead.
Tom Brady raised questions about his team’s attitude on multiple occasions after the game.
“We have to be a lot better in a lot of areas, starting with our attitude and our competitiveness,” Brady said. “I just think we need to have more urgency, go out there and perform a lot better. There’s a winning attitude and a championship attitude that you need to bring every day. We had it handed to us on our own field. It’s a terrible feeling. The only people that can do something about it are in that locker room. We’ve got to dig a lot deeper than we did (last night). We didn’t dig very deep (last night).”
What’s worse, Dont’a Hightower (right knee) and Danny Amendola (concussion) couldn’t finish the game, and the lack of depth was especially biting as the Chiefs scored 21 consecutive points in the fourth quarter.
Brady was 16-of-36 for 267 yards and no touchdowns. Mike Gillislee was the offensive star with three rushing touchdowns, and Amendola had six catches for 100 yards before the injury. Brandin Cooks had three catches for 88 yards and also drew three defensive penalties.
Defensively, the Patriots surrendered the most points of the Belichick era, and they yielded three drives of at least 90 yards and another one-play, 75-yard touchdown strike. Alex Smith was 28of-35 for 368 yards and four touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt added 16 carries for 145 yards and a score on top of five catches for 98 yards and two touchdowns.
“Bad defense, bad coaching, bad playing, bad football,” Belichick said.
The Chiefs broke out of their shell and established themselves in the third quarter. Stephon Gilmore failed to carry Tyreek Hill through his zone, and Smith delivered an easy 75-yard touchdown pass to the speed demon that gave the Chiefs their first lead at 21-17.
Gillislee completed the scoring trifecta midway through the third with a 1-yard plunge that gave the Pats a 24-21 edge, and Stephen Gostkowski’s 31-yarder extended the lead to 27-21.
But the Chiefs quickly struck back by exploiting a mismatch. Hightower was done for the night with a right knee injury after Alan Branch and Chiefs center Mitch Morse fell on his leg, and backup Cassius Marsh was singled up on Hunt, who flew past him for an all-too-easy 78-yard catch and run for a touchdown and 28-27 lead in the fourth quarter.
“Every time we had a miscommunication, they made us pay,” safety Duron Harmon said.
The Patriots had short-yardage woes that continued in the fourth quarter. They went for it on fourthand-1 from the Chiefs’ 40 with 12:29 remaining, but Gillislee was halted for no gain. The Pats got stuffed twice on fourth-and-1 and once on third-and-1 in the game.
The Chiefs extended their lead to 35-27 when Hunt raced to the right edge for a 3-yard touchdown to cap a seven-play, 60-yard drive that never required a third down.
The Chiefs put the game away when Charcandrick West scored a 21-yard touchdown to make it 42-27. The Patriots were steamrolled on their two most important defensive possessions when they trailed in the fourth quarter.
“We’ve got to get a lot better if we’re going to win any football games this year,” safety Devin McCourty said.
The Patriots’ night started off on a promising note, as they rode the emotional wave from the banner celebration and turned it into an easy touchdown on the opening drive when Gillislee plowed ahead for a 2-yard score.
The lead should have increased from there. Jordan Richards forced a Hunt fumble on the visitors’ first offensive snap. McCourty recovered at the Chiefs’ 32.
Brady and Rob Gronkowski nearly connected for a 20-yard touchdown six plays later, but replay showed Gronkowski lost control of the ball as he hit the ground.
Two plays after that, the Pats bypassed a 28-yard field goal from Gostkowski to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the 10. But the Chiefs stormed the middle of the line and drove Gillislee to the ground for no gain.
The Chiefs came to life with a 12-play, 90-yard touchdown journey. Demetrius Harris caught a 7-yard touchdown pass from Smith that knotted the score at 7-7.
Gostkowski’s 25-yard field goal made it 10-7, and Gillislee closed down a second-quarter drive with five consecutive carries for 33 yards, including a 2-yard scoring run that increased the lead to 17-7 midway through the second quarter.
The Chiefs scrapped closer before the half when Smith hit Hunt for a 3-yard TD with 13 seconds left in the second quarter to trim the deficit to 17-14 and lay the groundwork for a second-half surge.
“There was nothing really positive about anything that was done,” Brady said. “We’ve got to get back to work.”