this game showed the growing pains of making so many offseason changes, like the Patriots did. at the same time the Chiefs were humming like a well oiled engine.

Even with Kelce not impacting the game, Hill and Hunt ran the offence. While Hunt fumbled on his first regular season carry he dominated the ground game after with 3 TDs on 148 yds rushing and 98 yds receiving. Hill received over 100 yds and a TD while also dipping into the backfield. A very impressive start against the current SB champ.

Being the CB opposite Peters you’re always going to be targeted a lot. while he caused several penalties early on, terrence mitchell made a big play in the 4th quarter. the front seven also did their part to stop the Patriots on several drives.

and this is where one of my biggest criticisms for the patriots come. i was shocked when they didn’t hold on to Blount, very very shocked and though they might regret it. and I feel that this has been proved correct in the opening game. without a real beast in the backfield they failed to convert on two 4th and a 3rd down, all for 1 yd or less. situations where you feel like Blount wouldn’t have had any problems. the Patriots loss is the Eagles gain.

altogether, the new backfield still seemed a bit confused on who was starting with gillislee, white and burkhead seemingly on a similar level. Nonetheless gillislee seemed to get the nod  most of the time with the most impact, especially on the goal line. Surprising were the carries Hogan got speeding across the backfield.

the passing game was relatively weak for Patriots standards. cooks made a couple of big plays deep but that was it, amendola did well to step up for the injured edelman. Gronk made his presence felt but not often enough so that both TEs from the Chiefs made more yards. so altogether they didn’t impress.

the D made no noteworthy plays in  my mind – reflected in the 42 points allowed.

put together an unimpressive receiving corps with an unestablished ground game and the 27 points they got were quite impressive.

Summary

Chiefs: great start, I’m really glad Hill got a good start and really hit the ground running because he is one of the WRs who i chose most in my fantasy drafts. Hunt was an absolute revelation stepping up as the Chiefs no.1 back.

Patriots: starting the season on the backfoot is not ideal, they need to sort out the backfield and step it up in the airgame. most of all, however, they need to sort out their D. while they had strong starting CBs the opposing WRs found the gaps and the RBs put a lot of yards on the ground.