Patriots advance to AFC Championship with win over Chiefs

Chiefs coach Andy Reid defended his team’s clock management at the end of Saturday night’s 27-20 playoff loss at New England. The Chiefs were completely outmanned by the Patriots, being without Jamaal Charles, Justin Houston, Jeremy Maclin, Phillip Gaines and Ben Grubbs, just to name a few.

Brady has all the accolades of a first-ballot Hall of Famer: four-time Super Bowl champion, three-time Super Bowl MVP, two-time NFL MVP, 11-time Pro Bowler. What also killed Kansas City was the Patriots defense that just wasn’t allowing the Chiefs to make it anywhere across the field. “We’ll just go back to work this week and try to get better for next week”. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin later said his coaches have had problems with headsets every time they play at New England.

Despite injuries to key players and mysterious distractions – coach Bill Belichick showed up last week with an unexplained black eye, and the defensive star Chandler Jones arrived unannounced at a police station shirtless and disoriented – the Patriots are one victory away from their third Super Bowl in the last five years.

Kansas City saw an 11-game win streak snapped. Without their best receiving threat for most of the game, the Chiefs offense bogged down, while the Patriots offense did nearly everything it wanted to against the Kansas City defense. “Doing the things that you’ve done to get yourself in this position are really important….” Edelman, playing his first game since breaking a bone in his left foot on November 15, finished with 10 catches for 100 yards.

The AFC Championship Game will be held at the Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver since the Broncos ended as the top team in the conference, with the Pats coming in at second place.

“Whatever happens, happens”, said Brady when asked if he would be rooting for the Steelers.

Then with time expiring, an off-balance Rodgers sent a speculative 41-yard pass into the crowded end zone, where Jeff Janis took the catch to make it 20-19 and the conversion tied it.

“We had 20 seconds”, Reid said. He also had an 8-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter to give the Patriots a 7-0 lead.

When Reid was hired here after that disastrous 2-12 season in 2012, we called our Philadelphia CBS affiliate for comments on the new Chiefs head man. One of their sportscaster told me, “You’ll love Andy”.

Sure, the offense has looked more potent at times during the season, and we’ve seen better games collectively from the Pats than what was on display in Saturday’s victory at Gillette Stadium.

After pulling to within seven points with 73 seconds to play in regulation, the Chiefs tried an onside kick but Gronkowski recovered the ball. The Patriots now move through to the AFC championship game for the fifth straight year. Brady then bulled his way into the end zone on the next play.

The Patriots’ passing attack was on full display on Saturday, and Edelman was a huge reason why.

“When it was all said and done, we had plenty of clock to take care of business”.

That came one play after he ran 10 yards down to the one-foot line.

He was wrong. The nation of Patriots fans must have gasped as Brady was violently knocked out of bounds just short of the goal line by two defenders. New England tight end Rob Gronkowski recovered it, wrapping up the outcome.

Gronkowski, who missed practice Thursday and Friday because of back and knee issues, scored on catches of eight and 16 yards, the seventh and eighth postseason touchdown catches of his National Football League career.