Hooray! The season has kicked off with an excited matchup: The Kansas City Chiefs against the New England Patriots. The Patriots, coming off a historic Super Bowl Win, is as pumped and ready as ever, but the Chiefs are stacked with their own additions.
The Patriots signed former Buffalo Bills running back Mike Gillislee to lead the team on the ground, and he did, tying a record for the most touchdowns scored in a debut on a new team since Terrell Owens played for the Philadelphia Eagles. On the other hand, the Chiefs star rookie running back Kareem Hunt, taking place for injured Spencer Ware. Both running backs did spectacular, Hunt specializing in 236 rushing yards, 114 receiving yards, and two touchdowns, while Gillislee had THREE touchdowns.
The game started with a Hunt fumble -- not what the Chiefs wanted on the first play of Scrimmage. The Patriots scored a touchdown off the turnover with a Gillislee touchdown. Then, the Chiefs drove up the field and scored with a Tyreek Hill catch for 57 yards. At the end of the first quarter, it was tied 7-7.
The second quarter started with a Patriots drive, which ended after Mike Gillislee couldn't covert on 3rd and goal. Kicker Stephen Gostkowski nailed the field goal, however, giving the Patriots a three point lead. The Chiefs countered with a 96 yard drive, capped off with a Kareem Hunt swing pass for the lead, 14-10. But, the Patriots weren't done yet; they scored with ANOTHER Gillislee touchdown with minimal time remaining until half.
The New England Patriots received ball at the start of the third quarter, capping their initial drive with a THIRD Gillislee touchdown to give them the lead, 24-14. However, the Chiefs used some trickery against Patriot linebacker Kyle Van Noy as Kareem Hunt burned him for a 55 yard catch and touchdown. Experts claim that Alex Smith, quarterback of the Chiefs, noticed the press coverage Van Noy applied as he thought it was a bootleg screen, but Smith called an audible for Hunt to go on a deep skinny post route just as Van Noy least expected it. With this, the third quarter came to a stop, and the final quarter began.
We're not going to go too in-depth on fourth quarter action because there was A LOT -- and from only ONE team: the Chiefs. They managed to score 21 points in 15 minutes while giving up ZERO points to the Super Bowl Champion. The three touchdowns came from a Tyreek Hill, Albert Wilson, and Travis Kelce.
In the end, we're sure many fans (except Patriots fans) are all agreeing, "Yes! The Patriots lost!" We've seen an amazing performance from a team who exited the playoffs out of a devastating loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Rookie Kareem Hunt is definitely something head coach Andy Reid might want to consider when starting him once Ware comes back. The Patriots, though, are not to blame. Gillislee proved to be an excellent addition, but the defense couldn't keep up with this new Chiefs lineup. The only injury in this game was safety Eric Berry (knee) that sadly might stay on the sideline until the end of the season.
We're definitely excited to see how the rest of Week 1 will turn out to be, especially since the first game of it was AMAZING. Hopefully every game will be as intense as this one, because that'll be a big change from last year!
MVP:
Chiefs -- Kareem Hunt
Patriots -- Mike Gillislee