FOXBORO, MA -- Up until Sunday the second half had been owned by the Patriots.
They had outscored their opponents 54-14 in their first two games during
the final two quarters of play, allowing just one touchdown to both the
Steelers and Jets. But on Sunday the Chiefs scored 28 points in the
second half, 21 of which came in the final quarter of play to help Kansas
City force overtime against the defending Superbowl Champs.
It's a trend head coach Bill Belichick feels had better change if his
team has any plans of beating the San Diego Chargers on Sunday.
"It was kind of a contrast of halves where the first half ended up 10-9,"
said Belichick on Monday. "Then everything broke loose in the second
half and both teams were up and down the field quite a bit. Fortunately
we were able to score a couple more points than they were but that was
obviously an explosive offensive half by both teams."
Chiefs runningback Priest Holmes rushed for 145 of his 180-yards in the second
half and ran pretty much at will, taking advantage of the fact New England
was without linebackers Tedy Bruschi and Roman Phifer who were both out
with injuries on Sunday. The Chiefs also racked up 283 of their 349-yards
in the second half, with Holmes reaching the endzone
twice during that span, including one in the final seconds of regulation
to knot the game at 38-38.
While the Patriots battled back and scored 21 fourth quarter points
of their own, three of quarterback Tom Brady's four sacks came during the constant
second half onslaught of pressure he received. He stepped up and
made the plays, but watched his best receiver get nicked up, with Troy
Brown suffering a knee injury that has his status as "day-to-day" heading
into Sunday's game against the Chargers. Brown had 16 receptions
for 176-yards during the game, and in the event he's out this weekend that
would certainly be a big loss. He currently leads the NFL in receptions
with 31, and has obviously been a favorite of Brady's during the team's
first three games.
"I think that Tom knows what Troy is thinking and I think that Troy
knows what Tom is thinking," said Belichick. "Not that we don't have
our screw ups out there every once and awhile, but I would say overall
I think they have a good feel for each other."
Unfortunately the defense didn't seem to have much a feel for anything.
They allowed the Chiefs to convert 5-of-6 third downs in the second half
after holding the Steelers and Jets to a combined 1-of-15 in the final
two quarters of play during the first two weeks. Kansas City marched
down the field on each of their final three possessions en-route to the
endzone, and all Belichick can do now is hope his team doesn't allow that
to happen again this weekend when they head to San Diego.
If they do they'll find their current 12-game winning streak over, with
what could potentially be a long season remaining ahead of them.
"What we'll do is look at the tape [of Sunday's game]," said Belichick.
"We'll make the corrections on the tape [and] point those out to the players.
Certainly there's some coaching adjustments too, don't get me wrong.
But in the end, the next time that situation comes up, I think we'll execute
it better."
"If and when it happens, we hope that we'll learn from the game experience
and improve. That is what football is about in a 16-game regular season."
"A good player and a good team will do a little bit better the next time."
Hopefully Sunday's game was a learning experience for everybody.
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