Defending Super Bowl champions New England Patriots suffered a surprising loss to Kansas City Chiefs in NFL 2017 opening game. Thursday night saw the Chiefs ending on the winning side of 42-27 match and look like they are finally ready to move onto better and bigger things.
Chiefs QB Alex Smith had a great game, completing 28 of 35 passes and throwing 368 yards without a single interception. “It’s a big win. But you’ve got to be able to handle it the right way. We’ve got to be resilient and turn our attention to next week.” – said Smith after the game.
Smith had 4 touchdowns, but 2 were particularly impressive. One was a 75-yarder to Tyreek Hill in the 3rd quarter and the other one was 78-yarder to Kareem Hunt in the fourth. Speaking of Hunt, rookie running back had a big game, by all means, becoming only the 3rd player from 1970 to have three touchdowns and 150 yards from scrimmage in his NFL debut. The other two Marshall Faulk and Billy Sims. Hunt ended the game with 3 touchdowns and 246 yards combined.
On the Patriots end, things didn’t look great. Their QB Tom Brady had a night to forget, throwing only 267 and making just 16 out of 36 passes. In the game against the Chiefs, Brady failed to register a single touchdown. Chiefs didn’t pressure Brady as much and tried to disrupt him with coverage, a tactic that obviously worked.
With the win over Patriots, Chiefs look like they are in a good place right now and that everything is possible for them. There is no doubt that Patriots will recover from this defeat, but talks about 19-0 record have come to an end although their head coach Bill Belichick always said Patriots don’t think about achieving such feat. Patriots will travel to New Orleans to face the Saints in the Week 2, while the Chiefs will welcome Philadelphia Eagles.
