Brady leads Patriots to fifth straight AFC title game

Saturday’s Kansas City Chiefs vs New England Patriots game on the CBS Sports TV channel and live streaming is the first of four NFL Divisional Playoff games this weekend.

On Saturday against Kansas City, Edelman finished with 10 catches for 100-yards, the last of which came off a lucky bounce on a pass to Rob Gronkowski, with Edelman alertly snatching it out of the air for a game-clinching first-down reception.

Then, on third-and-7, Brady to Gronkowski for an 8-yard touchdown, a perfectly thrown back-shoulder pass to the left where Gronkowski leaped to catch the ball against an overmatched Sean Smith.

Arizona marched 74 yards after Jeff Janis’ TD catch, but bogged down once it hit the red zone. Those close to the team expect Gronkowski to play and Kansas City is preparing for a healthy Patriots tight end. They didn’t intercept Brady once – a rarity for one of the league’s most opportunistic units – and they didn’t even sack him, either. It did again Saturday afternoon, with a 27-20 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs that turned – stop if you’ve heard this before, and you surely have – on Tom Brady’s almost flawless game, on an excruciating Chiefs turnover, a few mental mistakes and baffling clock management.

“Having them changes everything”, said Matthew Slater, New England’s special teams captain. Andy Reid called for a run, and Charcandrick West lost a yard.

In the meantime, the Patriots have won 24 postseason games.

The New England Patriots seemed like they were guaranteed a top seed before their Week 17 defeat that forced them to step down into the second seed.

Gronkowski had spent two weeks on the sidelines recovering from knee and back injuries but looked clear of all those problems today as he went on to add another touchdown to take his tally to two, with seven receptions for 83 yards. “We’ll be a better team for it next year”.

Alex Smith completed 29 of 50 passes for 246 yards and one touchdown for Kansas City (12-6).

But as we’ve seen with the Patriots, those plays don’t happen without Edelman on the field, extending drives that had routinely sputtered when he was out.

He’d finish the day with 302 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, and another rushing touchdown. But with Jeremy Maclin hobbled, and Travis Kelce effectively taken away, the passing attack didn’t have enough juice to beat the defending champs in a road playoff game.

Despite the penalty and awful field position, the Patriots drove 98 yards for another touchdown, a one yard dive by Brady.

The Patriots had an extra week to rest leading up to the anticipated playoff matchup, and Brady is expected to be a full go after suffering an ankle injury in the final game of the regular season.

The Chiefs got the ball first to start the second half and drove to the Patriots’ 30. New England went 6-12 on third down with Edelman back. Reid should have made sure that Smith had multiple plays ready coming out of the two minute warning, but evidently he did not do that.