Halftime observations from Gillette Stadium: Can the Chiefs come back?!
The Chiefs trail the Patriots 24-9 at halftime, good for their biggest deficit of the season. Here’s what happened.
The Replacements
With three regular starters out Sunday night, the Chiefs had a couple of first-time starters on the field. Both Jordan Lucas and Breeland Speaks made their first career starts while offensive lineman Jordan Devey made his first start of the season in place of right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif. Devey didn’t stay at right guard, though. Mitch Morse exited the game with two minutes left in the first half to be evaluated for a concussion. With Morse’s exit, Devey slid to center and Andrew Wylie came in at right guard.
Defensive back Josh Shaw, who signed with the Chiefs on Oct. 2, got his first action of the season. Shaw was in briefly to guard Rob Gronkowski and kept the tight end from getting a catch on his first target of the game.
Mah-OH NO
Patrick Mahomes hasn’t made many bad throws in his six-game career as the Chiefs’ starting quarterback. But he made one on the first play of the Chiefs’ second drive as he targeted tight end Travis Kelce in the middle. But Mahomes never saw linebacker Dont’a Hightower playing zone underneath. Hightower easily picked the ball off and ran it back 27 yards. The Patriots scored on the next play as running back Sony Michel punched it in from four yards out.
On the whole, the Chiefs’ quarterback looked jittery and a little too hyped up in Sunday night’s start. He missed a couple of easy throws by overthrowing his receivers. By the end of the first half, Mahomes completed 14 of 23 for 164 yards with two interceptions, including one on the final drive where he tried to thread the needle. Instead of the ball winding up in Kelce’s hands in the end zone, it wound up in Duron Harmon’s.
Stalling out
The Chiefs got in the red zone twice in the first quarter, and both times, couldn’t finish the drive in the end zone. That led to Harrison Butker coming on twice and making field goals of 43 and 42 yards. Then in the second quarter, the Chiefs got all the way to the four yard line before losing two yards on a pass play to Anthony Sherman. Mahomes tried to connect with Sammy Watkins on the third down play, but Stephon GIlmore stayed close on Watkins and kept him from making the catch in the end zone. Again, the Chiefs had to settle for a field goal.
The Chiefs had one final chance to get in the end zone, getting the ball back with 1:57 to go in the game. But Mahomes was picked off in the end zone with seconds on the clock and Butker didn’t even get a chance to attempt the field goal.
Biggest deficit of the year
The Chiefs trailed by 11 points as the Patriots scored their second touchdown of the night early in the second quarter. Tom Brady hit Julian Edelman for his first touchdown back from suspension. Cornerback Kendall Fuller was defending on the pass, but stumbled as he chased after Edelman. There wasn’t any help over the top to stop Edelman.
After getting a stop on the Patriots’ first drive, the Chiefs defense struggled the rest of the game.
Hit the ground running
Led by rookie Sony Michel, the Patriots ground game carved up the Chiefs’ defense. For the half, Michel had 11 carries for 60 yards and two touchdowns. The Patriots offense averaged 5.3 yards per carry in the first half.
On the flip side, Kareem Hunt did most of the heavy lifting for the Chiefs’ offense. He had five carries for 38 yards and had four catches for 38 yards. The Chiefs averaged 5.8 yards per carry.