Editor: Joe Bryant. Game Recap Contributors: Mike Anderson, Michael Brown, Chris Burtt, J.D. Caldwell, David Dodds, Jim Enochs, Joel Faulhaber, Michael Flynn, Kevin Goldblum, Clayton Gray, Bob Harris, Fred Hebert, Jesse Hilsenrad, Drew Kendall, Jeff Lewis, Joey Matusek, Justin Oliver, Steve Prosapio, David Shick, Cody Smith, Scott Smith, Jeffrey Stout. Kansas City 38 at New England 41 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Kansas City Chiefs: The vulture days of Tony Richardson may be over. RB Priest Holmes was used exclusively at the goal line, including the one-yard TD run as time expired. Holmes continues to be a rushing machine. He finds holes where there are none and bulls for positive yards when he appears stopped for a loss. He showed again that he's a terrific receiver and led his team in catches this week. He scored twice on the ground and once in the air. QB Trent Green is not playing as well as the stats indicate. He overthrew wide open receivers and threw jump balls into traffic. All of the receivers struggled as a result of his inconsistency. He did throw three touchdowns but added two interceptions and a measly 149 yards to them. A sub-par effort. Contrary to reports he wouldn't need it, TE Tony Gonzalez played with a cast on his right wrist. He was a very minor part of this game plan and the cast likely was a factor. Eddie Kennison is clearly the go to WR in the passing game. Kennison was called down at the one-yard line on the second to last play of the game, and could have easily ended up with 3 TDs. Johnnie Morton still does not appear to be able to handle the #1 receiving role. Trent Green did overthrow him when he was wide open for a touchdown, but he not capitalized on the opportunities. New England Patriots: QB Tom Brady is a starter in your FF league until the Patriots decide to move from an offense that has him throwing 50+ times each week. His passes were crisp and accurate often leading his receivers downfield for more yards after the catch. Threw an interception when he got hit releasing the ball. He completed passes to nine different receivers. New England's Offensive Coordinator Charlie Weis appeared to use all of his running backs at first, and then decided on Antowain Smith during the second half. Smith scored on a 42-yard run that accounted for almost half of his yards on the day. Benefited from New England wearing down the Chiefs defensive front with a no-huddle offense early in the game. Troy Brown had a huge day with 16 catches for 176 yards and a score. He's definitely the number one guy in Brady's playbook. He gets a lot of help from the other WR's and TE's drawing coverage away from him. WHAT YOU OUGHT TO KNOW Kansas City Chiefs QB: Trent Green- He looked much worse than his numbers (16-29, 149, 3 TD 2 INT) might suggest. He missed a number of WIDE OPEN receivers with bad passes. Granted, Belichick's defenses are designed to confuse the QB but Green was missing guys whose defender had fallen down. He looked bad. He was slow to deliver the ball, which allowed a beaten defender to recover on at least one occasion. He must have been reading the defense relatively well because his two interceptions were not into trick coverages. One of them was a long pass he under threw and the other was a jump ball that his receiver misjudged. One positive was how he bounced back from missing a wide open Johnnie Morton in the endzone by throwing a touchdown to Eddie Kennison on the next play. RB: Priest Holmes dominated a defense that had shut down two of the NFL's best rushing offenses from the previous year. Holmes did struggle some early and looked like he was trying to get into holes before they were open. As the first quarter wound down you could see him developing a feel for how to attack the defense. In the second half he seemed to fit into holes that weren't there, turning sure negative yards into nice gains. He had success on all types runs. Draws, sweeps, and dives proved to be effective as the game wore on. He was most effective when he started the run up the middle and bounced out to the corner. The initial movement drew the linebackers in and created pursuit lanes for him to cut back into. Also led the team in receptions on the day with five. Caught one of Green's TD passes in the flat on a coverage breakdown that left him wide open. Did have one fumble that he lost while breaking a tackle after a solid gain. Scored twice on the ground and once in the air. Encouraging that he got the 1 yard TD and was not pulled for Richardson at the goalline. Tony Richardson- Limited opportunities, limited results. A non-factor in the game. Did see some single back duty but wasn't much more than an extra blocker. WR: Eddie Kennison- Clearly the go to WR in the passing game, but with Green playing so inconsistently that's not saying much. He had two nice catches for TD's showing excellent concentration on the first one as he was blanketed by the corner. He was called down at the one-yard line on the second to last play of the game, and could have easily ended up with 3 TDs. Johnnie Morton- The Forgotten Man in this offense. Green just didn't seem to be looking his way until the second half. When Morton was targeted Green just couldn't get the ball to him. Morton was wide open in the endzone in the second half and Green delivered the ball 5 yards out of bounds. TE: Tony Gonzalez- Limited by a cast on his right wrist that was protecting an injury. He had no catches in the first half and just one catch on the day. Green didn't seem to be looking for Gonzalez at all. You have to think the injury played some part in his limited looks. Chiefs Pass Defense: Absolutely shredded by a varied and potent New England offense. It should be noted that with two or three exceptions all of the yards given up were short to mid range completions. The interception came after a strong pass rush hit Brady as he was releasing the ball. Brady was tough to get to as a lot of his passes were short crosses and slants. When he did need to stay in the pocket he was pressured and hit and sacked four times. Chiefs Rush Defense: After starting out solidly, the run defense of Kansas City wore down and started to give up big chunks of yards in the second half, capped by Antowain Smith's up the gut td run. New England operated from a no huddle offense for most of the first half, which did not give Kansas City a chance to rotate their interior linemen and keep them fresh. /**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/** New England Patriots QB: Tom Brady- New England came out in a five WR set on the first play and stuck with that set for their first eight plays from scrimmage, all from a no-huddle. Tom Brady has to be a lock starter until the offensive philosophy of the team moves away from him throwing the ball 50 times a week. All of his reads were sharp and his passes crisp. Most of his looks were short- to mid-range routes that the Chiefs seemed willing to give. Nine different receivers caught passes. He has total confidence in the pocket and never really gets rattled by the defense. He got pretty beat up today and it didn't seem to faze him. He took four sacks. The interception he threw was because he got hit as he was releasing the ball. He did fumble a flea flicker but recovered it himself and threw the pass. RB: Antowain Smith- Not much of a factor early in the game as the Patriots decided to throw the ball early and often and from a 5 WR set. Even when he got into the game Smith wasn't terribly productive, often stopped for a small gain. As the game wore on the KC defensive front wore down. The 42-yard touchdown run that accounted for almost half of his yards on the day was the result of an exhausted defense unable to make a clean tackle. No fewer than three Chiefs had an open shot at Smith on the run and none of them could bring him down. Kevin Faulk- Had a nice catch and run for a touchdown in the first half. Other than that he was not a real contributor offensively. WR: Troy Brown- He set a team record with 16 catches for 176 yards and a touchdown. He caught balls over the middle, down the sideline, and in the flat. A versatile receiver that is clearly the primary target of Tom Brady and the Patriot offense. He caught passes in bunches and often several on the same drive. A definite starter as long as New England stays pass-happy. David Patten/Deion Branch- Combined for 13 catches and 141 yards. They both benefit equally from all of the attention Brown gets from defensive secondaries. They both are incredibly fast and are able to accelerate to full speed quickly after the catch. They are a terrific complement to Troy Brown in this offense. Donald Hayes was almost non-existent in New England's game plan. TE: Graham/Fauria/Cleeland- The New England three-headed tight end was effective again this week. All of these guys can catch the ball well and all are looked to often by Tom Brady. Graham had a touchdown catch this week when he blew past a linebacker trying to cover him and scored form 18 yards out. Cleeland and Fauria proved their value to the team by each making an important catch in the middle of the field. The tough thing for FF owners is that all will play which will minimize any consistent fantasy value. Patriots Rush Defense - Started the game well against Priest Holmes but started to give up good gains after the first quarter. It's tough to be too critical because, yeah, they gave up a ton of yards but it was to one of the best backs in the league. There should be no shame in that. Showed their terrific speed by having 4-5 tacklers in on nearly every play. Patriots Pass Defense: Really kept Green from having much success at all on the day. I was surprised at the lack of a pass rush. Green seemed to have all day to look for an open receiver, there just weren't many. The secondary did a very good job of keeping Green from finding any seams in the defense to exploit. The excellent coverage did lead to a coverage sack early in the game and to many ball thrown away later in the game.