Patriots vs Chiefs Game Recap
Patriots top Chiefs but lose Brady for the 2008 season
Patriots Offense: In what was expected to be an easy opening season win, the Patriots suffered their worst possible fate as Tom Brady was sacked and tore his ACL in the first quarter. As he attempted to get rid of the ball, a Chiefs pass rusher was pushed right into his knee. Although New England still won 17-10, there are much more serious concerns. 
Matt Cassel did enough to guide his team to victory, with a touchdown pass and 152 yards. In the first half, the Patriots defense smothered the Chiefs rushing attack and protected the early lead. Late in the third, Sammy Morris scored on a five yard run to extend the margin to 14-3. Kansas City mounted a late comeback with a touchdown in the fourth quarter. But down by 7 and with the ball inside the Patriots ten yard line, they were unable to score the tying touchdown. Matt Cassel had a decent game and completed a lot of short, high percentage passes. He does not quite have the accuracy or leadership ablities of Tom Brady, but New England will have to rely on him to control the offense. Through the entire game, the offensive gameplan was simplified to include a heavy dose of screens, slants and other short throws. Randy Moss and Wes Welker were the top receivers, combining for 11 catches and 167 yards. Sammy Morris and Laurence Maroney split the carries at runningback and both averaged five yards per attempt. In future games, New England is expected to put more emphasis on their runningbacks to take pressure off Cassel and to allow him to operate from a limited playbook. The Patriots will not be throwing 30 or 40 yards passes to Moss like in the past, but will instead feature a methodical and hopefully consistent rushing attack.
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Patriots Defense: New England contained a very weak Kansas City offense and were under more pressure than originally expected. The Chiefs attempted 27 rushing plays for 101 yards, which is just 3.8 yards per carry. In the game, the Patriots were able to stop the run on first and second down, forcing third down plays from long yardage situations. The defensive line got penetration and were in the backfield often on running plays, which is a good song because in the preseason, the pass rush and penetration was non-existent. The pass rush was decent and although it didn't create turnovers, it prevented any type of consistent deep passing. The Chiefs had one pass completed for 68 yards but other than that, both Damon huard and Brodie Croyle struggled to complete passes over ten yards. The linebackers had an average game, they did allow some yards after the catch, mostly in the second half. They didn't make game-changing mistakes but their tackling could have been a little better. A few times they seemed out of position or in poor coverage. The Patriots secondary put pretty good coverage on receivers and forced Kanas City to resort to short passes. The cornerbacks have made improvements in reading routes and being in the right position on deep routes. That is a positive thing because in the next game against the Jets, Brett Favre will likely test the secondary and try to get on the scoreboard quickly to establish momentum. New England played very well for the first three quarters but in the fourth, they allowed two long drives and that could be a sogn of some fatigue. Considering the circumstances, it was still a nice effort for the overall game.
Special Teams: Stephen Gostkowski made all three kicks, one field goal and two extra points. Chris Hanson punted 4 times for an average of 50 yards. The Patriots could not get any good punt returns but had good punt coverage on the Chiefs returns. They also had 3 kick returns for an average of 23 yards.
By Chad Fukuoka
ProFootball-fans.com New England Patriots Correspondent