Patrick Mahomes threw a pair of second half touchdowns Monday night, as the Kansas City Chiefs scored 20 points over the final 30 minutes to get past the New England Patriots 26-10 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.
The game was moved from Sunday evening to Monday night after Patriots quarterback Cam Newton tested positive for coronavirus, forcing New England to test all players several times. The visitors would start Brian Hoyer under center. The Patriots defense was pretty solid for much of the game, but ended up leaving some points off the board. One of those times was late in the second quarter with no timeouts left and New England down three and driving at the Kansas City 13 yard line. On a 3rd and 9 with 10 seconds left Hoyer took a 13 yard sack, and the final seconds ticked off as the Chiefs took a 6-3 advantage into the locker room.
After each team punted to begin the third quarter, New England (2-2) drove deep into KC territory once again helped by a big 25 yard pass from Hoyer to wide receiver Demaire Byrd. But on another 3rd down from the Chiefs 10 yard line, Hoyer was sacked and fumbled and KC recovered leaving at least another three points on the field that could of tied the game. The hosts took that turnover and drove 85 yards in seven plays culminating with a Mahomes to Tyreek Hill six yard touchdown pass to extend the lead to 13-3. The other New England quarterback Jarrett Stidham would then enter the game and lead the Pats on a scoring drive that was helped by a 41 yard run by rookie running back Damien Harris. Stidham threw his first NFL regular season TD when he hit N’Keal Harry for a four yard score to cut it to 13-10 early in the fourth. Kansas City (4-0) put it away though when Mahomes found Mecole Hardman with a shuffle pass that the receiver took into the endzone from six yards away, and then on the next offensive play for New England Stidhams screen pass to Julian Edelman went off the receivers hand right into the hands of Tyrann Mathieu who returned it 25 yards for a touchdown with 8:57 left. The Pats would have a shot to cut it to a one score game, but Stidham was intercepted by Rashad Fenton at the two yard line after the Pats had driven to the Chiefs 37 to end any threat.
Hoyer would go 15-24 passing for 130 yards and one interception in the New England loss. Stidham in relief was 5-13 for 60 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Harris ran for 100 yards on 17 carries in his debut, and Byrd led the receiving score with five grabs for 80 yards. Jonathan Jones had four tackles to lead the defense. Mahomes was 19-29 passing for 236 yards and two touchdowns in the Kansas City win. Clyde Edwards-Helaire rushed 16 times for 64 yards. Tightend Travis Kelce had three catches for 70 yards, while Hill had four for 64 yards and the one score. Juan Thornhill had six tackles and an interception to anchor the Chiefs defense. New England is back at home next Sunday at 4:25 p.m. when they host the Denver Broncos.
