KANSAS CITY — Adam Vinatieri will go down as the goat in this game. And that will be unfair.
Vinatieri (no longer “Automatic”, folks) missed two easy field goals today, but his second miss was a 32-yard attempt that would have won the game for the Patriots. With nine seconds left, Vinatieri booted the ball off the right upright, and the Kansas City Chiefs escaped with a 16-14 win.
The Patriots fall to 4-1, and have still never won at Arrowhead Stadium (0-3 lifetime). The Chiefs go to 3-2 and are unbeaten at home this year.
The Patriots actually led at the half, not needing a second half comeback. At least not right after halftime. Their suffocating defense shut down the Chief offense and had QB Elvis Grbac totally out of sync.
But the Patriots had offensive problems themselves. The Patriots were guilty of five false start penalties in the first quarter, three on Heath Irwin. Drew Bledsoe had decent first half numbers (14 for 27, 227 yards), but overthrew Shawn Jefferson on three deep bombs where the receiver was open each time.
Bledsoe’s only long bomb that did connect went to Terry Glenn, a 49-yard touchdown strike in the second quarter that gave New England a 7-3 lead. That was the score at the intermission.
But inexplicably, as suffocating as the Patriot defense had been in the first half, they suddenly went to sleep in the third quarter. Donnell Bennett ripped off two runs of twelve yards, and Bam Morris added an eleven-yard burst to send Kansas City off on a eight-minute opening drive of the third quarter. Bennett capped it off with a one-yard touchdown run and the Chiefs led for good at 10-3.
The Patriots turned the ball over four times. Bledsoe threw two interceptions and also had a fumble. Terry Allen also coughed the ball up deep in Chief territory, even though the officials missed Leslie O’Neal offsides on the play.
The Chiefs used two Pete Stoyanovich field goals to up their lead to 13-7 before Bledsoe rallied the Pats with a quick scoring drive late in the fourth quarter. Bledsoe hit Jefferson with a ten-yard scoring strike with three minutes to go.
The Pats did get the ball back with 35 seconds left and the ball at their own 33. Bledsoe connected on passes to Glenn, Jefferson and Coates to get the Pats to the Chief 15 yard line.
But Vinatieri just couldn’t bring the Pats home.
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Covering Boston Sports since 1997. Native of Worcester, Mass. Attended UMass and Univ of Michigan. Lives in California. Just recently retired after 40 years of public school teaching. Podcasts on YouTube at @thepic4139
