Impressive Patriots top Chiefs to advance to fifth straight AFC title game

The New England Patriots outlasted the Kansas City Chiefs, 27-20, Saturday night to advance to the AFC Championship Game for the fifth time in a row.

The verdict after the first postseason game, a 27-20 win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday at Gillette Stadium?

Julian Edelman, returning from a two-month absence due to a broken foot, caught 10 of Tom Brady’s passes for 100 yards.

Palmer completed 25-of-41 passes for 349 yards, including an 8-yard touchdown pass to Michael Floyd to open the scoring and a 9-yard TD toss to Floyd with 3:44 remaining in the fourth quarter to give Arizona a 17-13 lead.

That left them with 1:13 to go, essentially forcing Kansas City to try an onside kick.

Brady got his 9th career 300-yard passing postseason game, tied for first all-time. “There’s only four teams playing next weekend and we’re one of them”. The score honestly looks a lot more polite for the Chiefs than this game really was.

The victor of the New England-Kansas City game will face the victor of the Steelers vs Broncos in the AFC Championship game next week.

Reid also said he plans to promote Pederson’s replacement as Chiefs offensive coordinator from within the staff. He wouldn’t go beyond that, but the logicial candidates would be among assistant head coach/wide receivers coach David Culley; running backs coach Eric Bieniemy; quarterbacks coach Matt Nagy or Brad Childress, the club’s spread-game analyst/special projects, who served as Reid’s offensive coordinator at Philadelphia during 2002-05 before becoming Minnesota’s head coach. “We had a good week of practice and practice execution became game reality and it was good to get out there and get a catch on that first drive”. “We’re going to need it”. “I tried to play, and I did, and then it came a point where the pain kind of took over and it was time for me to come out of the game”. “We’ll be a better team for it next year”. Their next drive spanned 57 yards and ended with a 40-yard field goal by kicker Stephen Gostkowski, and they followed that up a 32-yard field goal that was set up by a 22-yard Danny Amendola punt return.

The Chiefs posted an undefeated preseason record, something they hadn’t done since 1966.

Yet, the Chiefs did get something going on their next drive, as Smith even pulled off a little bit of magic on one play by ducking under and around a few tacklers and unleashing a deep ball to Avant, who made a contested catch over the corner for a 26-yard gain.

Former Eagles wide receiver Jeremy Maclin, now with the Chiefs, played Saturday despite an ankle injury that kept him out of practice last week.

“I think he’s worked his tail off”, quarterback Tom Brady said of Edelman. “It’s football season, so there’s bumps and bruises, but you’ve got to fight through those”. Brady added another touchdown pass to Gronkowski to make it 21-6.

Patriots defensive lineman Chandler Jones also had a big play to finish an odd week that started on Sunday when he left his home reeking of marijuana and showed up shirtless and confused at the local police station.

Only the Oakland Raiders (1973-77) have played in five consecutive conference title games in the Super Bowl era. The Patriots were without Gronkowski for three playoff games from 2012-2013 and they lost two of them.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick preferred to spread the credit around. It should have been a shelling considering how healthy New England was, and yet if that ball deflects off Tamba Hali differently, we could be talking about the AFC Championship game.

Alex Smith managed to get his Chiefs down the field at the end of the half but had to settle for a field goal after missing high in the end zone twice.