Patriots vs. Chiefs: Facts & Stats
Here are some stats of note from Monday night's 34-3 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. This is a compilation of stats that were pointed out during the telecast, as well as several facts from the team:
- Rob Gronkowski's third quarter touchdown was the 17th of his career in the red zone, the most in NFL history for a player in their first two seasons. He's also reached 20 touchdowns in the fewest games among tight ends (26) in NFL history. The previous best was held by Mike Ditka, who had done it in 31 games.
The NFL pointed out that Gronkowski is also the 2nd tight end in NFL History with back-to-back 10+ touchdown reception seasons, joining Antonio Gates (2004-05).
- That touchdown pass by Tom Brady to Gronkowski was his 25th of the season, which is the 7th time he's done so in his career. That tied him with Dan Marino for 3rd in NFL history.
- Julian Edelman's 72 yard punt return gave him a 12.4 career yards per punt return, which is the highest to total so far in team history. The Patriots also pointed out that he's the 4th player in team history to return multiple punts for touchdowns.
- Kyle Arrington picked off two passes Monday night, giving him seven on the season, extending his league lead.
- Phillip Adams later added another interception in the fourth quarter, with the Patriots pointing out that it was the first 3 interception game for New England since 12/26/10 at Buffalo (Jarrod Page, Dane Fletcheer, Patrick Chung), which coincidentally was a 34-3 win over the Bills. It was Adams' first career NFL interception.
- Wes Welker now has 88 consecutive regular season games with a reception, and was held without a target until 9:54 to go in the fourth quarter, which fell incomplete after Brady was hit on the throw. He caught his first pass of the night at around the 6:00 mark. The last catchless game for him came in Week 15 of 2005. Fortunately the streak remains in tact.
- According to the team, Monday night's win win gives Bill Belichick 184 wins, moving him past Bill Parcells into 9th on the NFL's all time coaching victories list. The win was also Tom Brady's 118th, moving him past Joe Montana into 7th place on the NFL's all time victories by a quarterback.
