Patriots trip themselves up in 26-10 loss at Kansas City

The Patriots played two quarterbacks Monday.

They started a running back with zero career starts.

The right side of their offensive line consisted of two sixth-round rookies, both playing out of position from where they spent most of training camp. Their starting center was on the street less than a month ago. And defensively, all the Patriots had to do was contain the reigning Super Bowl champions, who returned a roster that formed one of the most explosive, unstoppable offenses of all time.

They almost pulled it off.

After arriving in Kansas City early Monday afternoon, the Pats beat themselves in a 26-10 Chiefs victory postponed a day by COVID-19 tests on both sides. Quarterbacks Brian Hoyer and Jarrett Stidham combined for four turnovers, with Hoyer killing two drives inside the red zone all by himself. The Patriots (2-2) successfully ran on Kansas City, piling up 185 rushing yards and contained Patrick Mahomes as well as any defense in the past year.

Mahomes finished 19-of-29 for 236 yards and two touchdowns, a largely harmless performance considering he also threw two dropped interceptions. The Chiefs led 6-3 at halftime.

Untimely defensive mistakes marred what otherwise was one of the best performances on a young NFL season. The Pats stood 42 seconds from becoming the first team to hold the Chiefs (4-0) without a touchdown through three quarters since offensive whiz Andy Reid took over as head coach in 2013.

Trailing 13-10 in the fourth, rookie safety Kyle Dugger committed defensive pass interference against Chiefs All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce on third down to revive a Kansas City drive. On the next snap, defensive lineman Deatrich Wise chased Mahomes too far out of bounds on a sack that instead recorded as an unnecessary roughness penalty. Two plays later, rolling into Patriot territory, Mahomes lofted a hospital ball into triple coverage that J.C. Jackson missed for a game-changing interception.

Eventually, as they’re wont to do, the Chiefs found the end zone. Mahomes flipped a 6-yard touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman, who sped across the formation at the snap and eventually nosed his way across the goal line. Kansas City All-Pro wideout Tyreek Hill scored in the same fashion previous drive. After missing the extra point following Hardman’s touchdown, Kansas City scored on the next play from scrimmage, as safety Tyrann Mathieu raced a Stidham interception to pay dirt after it ricocheted off the hands of Julian Edelman for the game’s final score.

On the game’s opening drive, Pats safety Devin McCourty dropped a gifted pick. But later, backed up on a third-and-goal play, McCourty pressured Mahomes into an incompletion that forced a field goal. His debt was paid.

Meanwhile, Hoyer’s debts only mounted. He was sacked on the final play of the first half, a snap taken at the Chiefs’ 13-yard line with no timeouts that ran the clock out instead of setting up an easy game-tying field goal. He threw a first-quarter interception intended for a helplessly covered Ryan Izzo. Hoyer’s final snap was a fumble he lost at the Kansas City 10-yard line midway through the third quarter, after holding the ball for a criminally long period of time.

Had the Pats instead kicked a 28-yard field goal, they would have tied the game.

Instead, ahead 6-3, Mahomes punished the Pats on the next series with his touchdown pass to Hill. While Damien Harris (17 rushes, 100 yards) responded by ripping off a career-long 41-yard run that set up a Stidham fade touchdown to N’Keal Harry, the Pats couldn’t get out of their own way before the clock hit zeroes on the most miserable day trip in franchise history.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/36x76pH