The first three-quarters of Monday Night Football’s matchup between the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs was a Bill Belichick masterclass. The Patriots defense held Patrick Mahomes and the flamethrower known as the offense that he commands to only 13 points through the first 45 minutes, and it should have been less. On the first drive of the game safety, Devin McCourty dropped an easy interception and instead, the drive ended in a Chiefs field goal, and halfway through the third quarter, the Patriots sacked Mahomes causing him to lose the ball and a Pats defensive lineman to grab it before it touched the ground. That play should have been a fumble or an interception and instead, the referees ruled Mahomes as down and the play unreviewable, allowing the Chiefs to punt it away instead of giving up a touchdown. In the fourth quarter, the Chiefs offense finally figured things out and beat the Pats 26-10.
Still, the Patriots could have been up in, and probably would have won, this game if quarterback Cam Newton did not test positive for COVID-19 earlier in the week – this game was originally slated for Sunday Night Football but got moved to Monday in order to test Patriots players and ensure they were COVID-free. Instead, the Patriots had to rely on lifetime backup Brian Hoyer, who played like cabbage, giving up two turnovers in the RedZone and constantly making mistake after mistake. New England finally moved to second-year player Jared Stidham, who also had a disastrous outing throwing two interceptions in the fourth quarter alone.
Like the Seahawks loss, this game is still encouraging for the Patriots whose defensive game plan and personnel were stout enough to remind everyone that Belichick is still the best defensive game-planner of all time. If the Pats can figure some things out on offense and get a healthy Newton back then we will see them playing in January. But they have to stop taking encouraging losses and turn them into encouraging wins.
