New England Patriots vs. Kansas City in National Football League playoffs

Jonathan Bostic was inactive.

On the first drive of the game Rob Gronkowski opened the scoring with a nine-yard touchdown reception, capping an 80-yard drive and giving New England an early edge they would never relinquish.

– Dennis Waszak reporting from Foxborough, Massachusetts. Three plays and 47 seconds later – plus two plays negated by penalties – West rushed for a touchdown with 1:13 remaining. He also had a 10-yard run that he almost spun into a touchdown and brought his screaming, fist-pumping, Josh McDaniels-hugging emotional fire to bear on the game. The Chiefs looked sharp last weekend in blanking Houston 30-0 while the Patriots enjoyed a first-round bye.

Kansas City settled for two field goals by Cairo Santos and missed a prime opportunity for a touchdown shortly before halftime when the Chiefs got down to the Patriots 9. Throwing for over 300 yards and more importantly, keeping it turnover free, is what allowed the Patriots to stay ahead of their opponent and dictate the pace of the game when they wanted.

Smith had the Chiefs into New England territory on their first six possessions, but they managed just six points before he hit Albert Wilson on a 10-yard pass that made it 21-13.

Brady went 28-for-42 for 302 yards and two touchdowns, both to Rob Gronkowski, who has been battling knee and back ailments in recent weeks.

That touchdown marked Gronk’s eighth career postseason score. On fourth down and 20 at their own 4-yard line, with no time outs left in the final minute of regulation time, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers found a receiver to keep the game alive. Amendola lowered his head and leveled Fleming. They’ll play the victor of Pittsburgh and Denver.

– Jimmy Golen reporting from Foxborough, Massachusetts. Saturday they were counting on Sebastian Vollmer returning from injury, Marcus Cannon holding up at right tackle with rookie Shaq Mason next to him and center Brian Stork returning to last year’s form. And this: those 10 Saturday catches came after three first-quarter drops.

So consider the following: If New England were to win the Super Bowl, it would have accomplished it with the least effective running attack – in terms of regular season rushing yards per contest, at least – of any Super Bowl-winning team since before 2000. Gronkowski also recovered an onside kick after Kansas City cut the deficit to 27-20 with just over one minute left.

The Pro Bowl selection, who was fifth in National Football League with a career-high 12 1/2 sacks, apologized to his teammates and fans on Thursday, saying he made a “pretty stupid mistake”.

Beyond bad luck, there was no shortage of criticism for Andy Reid after the Chiefs seemed to burned timeouts in the first half.

Gronkowski set the franchise and the league records for playoff touchdown passes by a tight end.

Not coincidentally, two of their biggest offensive stars provided the biggest lifts in a 27-20 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in an AFC divisional round playoff game Saturday at Gillette Stadium.

The Chiefs won only one of their first six games of the 2015 season.

National Football League referees might need to work on their coin tosses in the offseason.

The Patriots face the victor of the Steelers-Broncos AFC Divisional Playoff matchup in the AFC Championship. However, stats can get distorted when a team is forced to play from behind virtually the entire game.

At 5-feet-10 and 200 pounds, Julian Edelman one of the smallest guys on the Patriots roster.