Photo Credit: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
With all the Wild games from the first week, with road wins and crazy calls, we have a bit of a normal playoff set, with the #1 and #2 seeds facing off in both conferences. Perhaps a bit boring, but we had another great week of games.
Race against the Clock:
Despite dominating the Patriots in time of possession, yards, and even first downs, New England held the lead the entire day. The first drive, the Patriots had an 11 play scoring drive. What was telling about this is what has plagued the Patriots recently; all 11 plays were passes, not runs. I’ll get into that later, but the lack of a running game proved to be an issue. The Pats ran 14 times for 38 yards, but Brady was efficient enough to win the game for them. The story of the game however came down to clock management. The Chiefs got the ball back with 6:29, all 3 timeouts but down by 2 TD’s. This is feasibly plenty of time, as you can even take your time and score in 4 minutes, then use your timeouts and get the 2 minute warning. Inexplicably, they get down to the 1 yard line with about 2:53 left, but it takes 5 plays to punch it in and the Chiefs huddle for every one. Their score came at 1:13 left in the game; or 5:16 after they got the ball. That’s inexcusable, and they didn’t even give themselves a chance. In true Patriots fashion, needing one first down, Brady throws it to Gronkowski who tips the ball up and into Julian Edelman’s hands getting the perfect amount of yardage for the first down and the win.
FMQB 