My thoughts after a crappy night's "sleep". No, I didn't lose sleep over the game (eff that). I got to bed about three hours after my usual time, but the dog and cat still got me up at 4:30 am to let them out.
Anyway, there's probably not much here that hasn't already been well-covered in the previous 299 comments, but here goes:
CLICHE #1: BB, MP, & McD will have a metric crap-tonne of talking points for the meeting room and practice field, and this game should serve as a "wake up call." A crappy WIN might have served that purpose just as well, but it is waht it is.
OFFENSE:
I expected the offense to sputter. In addition to needing to integrate four new skill position "starters" (not including Dorsett), all the veterans are essentially having to learn a brand-new, "100% Edelman-free" playbook from scratch and on the fly. The playbook that the team had been studying and practicing for three months pretty much went into the trash can just two weeks ago. This was their first test of the new one. The results weren't pretty, obviously.
Brady did not look sharp (see above), but I think at least a couple-three of his "overthrows" were more or less intentional.
I wasn't surprised that White ran the ball better than some folks may have expected, or that he was featured at the beginning. I also wasn't surprised that Gillislee got stuffed twice on 4th-and-short. I think he needs a lot more live-fire reps than he had going into this game. But I also wouldn't have called a run up the gut for either of those plays after the ref stopped play for a measurement. Dead giveaway on both of them. Of course, it's entirely possible that the team hadn't executed any of the possible alternative plays well in practice. Then, too, KC defended those two run attempts perfectly.
The OL seemed very good until the Q4 when KC's lead made the Pats offense one-dimensional and KC's pass-rushers could pin their ears back. Of course, before that, the OL was protecting Brady against only a three-man rush most of the time.
And KC executed a very well-conceived defensive game plan (rush three, drop eight) with very few missteps. It helped that Vonovich's crew didn't call DPI except in the most obvious cases. Both incompletions to Burkhead probably should have drawn flags. OTOH, more PI calls probably would've gone both ways.
DEFENSE:
The defense is attempting to integrate six new players (seven, if you count Richards), and they flat-out blew several plays (more runs than passes, really). Beyond struggling to read/coordinate/communicate correctly, tackling was inconsistent.
The surprise of the defensive game was that Jordan Richards actually looked competent for the most part (tied for second most tackles with Van Noy), at least in comparison to the rest of the defense's performance.
Also, for the most part, the Pats D successfully put a damper on Kelce and Hill. Aside from Hill's one 75-yard breakaway TD, they held him to 9.7 ypc with very little YAC. In contrast, 3 of Amendola's 6 catches went for 20+ yards. However, KC clearly saw that strategy coming from a mile away and their offense was prepared with alternative plays to keep Hill and Kelce in the game as more than decoys.
And then there was Kareem Hunt.
Hunt was my #1 2017 draft binky for the Pats. KC took him with the very next pick after the Pats took Garcia. I acknowledge that this was only one game and that Hunt was shredding a defense that often looked like a bunch of 3rd-stringers who had met each other for the first time running out of the tunnel. And KC's run-blocking was very well executed. But still, the kid clearly has some real chops.
Then, too, the last time KC blew out the Pats (week-4 in 2014), it was Knile Davis and Jamaal Charles combining for 199 yards on 34 carries. It may be a "passing league", but lack of execution in run-D will still kill you.
And Alex Smith played maybe the best game of his life. Even subtracting the long TD receptions by Hill and Hunt, Smith still went 26/33 (79%) for 215 yards (6.5 ypp) and two TDs.
CLICHE #2: We're on to New Orleans.
