The Patriots showed that they can compete with the Chiefs if they have a quarterback
The Patriots’ 26-10 loss to the Chiefs on Monday Night was ugly, but still encouraging when you consider the circumstances. On the road against the best team in football without your starting quarterback.
The score was 6-3 at halftime. With Cam Newton in the game, New England would have likely had a couple touchdowns on the board. Brian Hoyer’s first quarter interception was inexcusable and taking a sack to let the clock run out at the end of the half is the type of play that gets you cut from this team. His last play of the game was a fumble in the red zone, where he clearly had zero ability to feel the pressure coming from behind him. Jarrett Stidham’s touchdown pass to N’Keal Harry was impressive, but his performance overall was not. He also had two picks, although one was the fault of Julian Edelman, who had a rare bad performance.
If you continuously make mistakes on offense against the Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes will eventually put you away. The Patriots defense deserves all the credit in the world (aside from a couple dropped picks by Devin McCourty and JC Jackson) for holding that team to under 30 points at Arrowhead. A competent quarterback who doesn’t crap on himself in the red zone would have made a massive difference. That, and the refs not taking a pick-six off the board because apparently this is a sack:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CF–P8UBPdY/
Bottom line, the Chiefs are beatable if we have all of our pieces in place. Let’s hope for a speedy recovery from Cam and now Stephon Gilmore, because I’d love to see KC again in January.