New England Patriots Beat Kansas City Chiefs 27-20

The Patriots will find out if they have another home game tomorrow evening after the Steelers play the Broncos. New England won the AFC East for the seventh straight year. It overcame the in-game losses of Jones, Collins and Jerod Mayo to injury. But it also got contributions from backups like Justin Coleman, Dekoda Watson and Darius Fleming. Jonathan Bostic was inactive. Crushing play. The Patriots then make Kansas City pay for the turnover on a pass from Tom Brady to Rob Gronkowski for another score, stretching their lead to 21-6.

– Dennis Waszak reporting from Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Tom Brady wasted little time in getting his favorite target back in the swing of things. The Chiefs had to settle for a pair of field goals when reaching the red zone in the first half, and they turned the ball over in Patriots territory on the opening drive of the second half.

Rob Gronkowski and the Patriots struck first on an 8-yard pass from Tom Brady for the touchdown. Brady also has a 1-yard run for a score.

On the other side of the ball, New England simply struggled on 3rd downs.

The Chiefs had a chance to make it close before halftime, but some poor clock management cost them and they had to kick another field goal, making it 14-6 at the half. It’s New England’s 12th conference title game overall.

The Patriots wide receiver played in Saturday’s divisional-round playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs, his first game since he fractured his foot in Week 10. Edelman went on to catch 10 passes for 100 yards in the victory.

This is the first time the Pats have met the Chiefs in the postseason.

This week was one of the weirder ones for the buttoned-down Patriots.

That touchdown marked Gronk’s eighth career postseason score.

The referees are trying to keep this game under control, a week after the game between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh was tainted by illegal hits and penalties. There might have been another camera angle that showed definitively whether the ball got across the line to gain before Edelman went down. The drive was in danger of stalling at the Kansas City 35 when Chiefs linebacker Dezman Moses hit Brady late and was called for roughing the passer.

– Jimmy Golen reporting from Foxborough, Massachusetts.

The Chiefs secured excellent field position after a nice punt return by Frankie Hammond. The battered offensive line has limited Brady’s protection for much of the season. Once again Andy Reid got into a big game against the Patriots and once again his common sense with telling time went out the window. A star defensive player, Chandler Jones, had an odd medical situation in which he appeared semi-clothed at a local police station. Pressed – a reporter apparently saw him going into the X-ray room – he said to ask Coach Bill Belichick.

Santos answered for the Chiefs with a 34-yard field goal, but Brady had more magic up his sleeve.

As for the Chiefs (11-6) this is the first time they’ve advanced to this round of the playoffs since the 2003 season when they lost to the Indianapolis Colts 38-31. Hey, he’s only had 17 years as an National Football League head coach to work on it. “Whether we play here or (in Denver), we’re going to have to play great”. In each of its 11 straight victories, Kansas City came up with at least one takeaway.

Kansas City wasn’t through yet.