Perry's Pats-Chiefs Report Card: QB failures ruin upset bid vs. KC

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While a few positional groups found success at Arrowhead Stadium Monday night, the most important position on the field was racking up mistakes instead of yardage -- and that failure is reflected in Phil Perry's Report Card.

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1/9

It's not often there's as wide a discrepancy in the grades as there will be this week. When the Patriots win, it's often because of what Bill Belichick calls "complementary football," leading to relatively high marks across the board. If they're beaten, it's because of letdowns on both sides of the ball.

This week? The offense let them down. In holding Patrick Mahomes to 19 points, the Patriots defense gave its run-happy offense a chance to win the game against one of the worst run-stopping units in football. That opportunity felt like it slipped through Brian Hoyer's fingers when he fumbled in the red zone in the third quarter -- his second trip inside the 20 that resulted in no points. 

We'll start there, at the quarterback position, which provides us a first in this year's series of grades...

2/9

Over the years of putting together this Report Card, the "Fs" have been rare. It's come to define performances from a given position group whose consistent mistakes resulted in a loss. Hard to go anywhere else here but hand out a failing grade. 

Sure, Jarrett Stidham tossed a good-looking touchdown pass. Sure, Brian Hoyer actually made a couple of nice throws . . . right before fumbling in the red zone. But Hoyer's overwhelmingly bad decisions deep in Chiefs territory were gut punches against an offense that typically forces opponents to maximize every opportunity at points. His lack of awareness with the clock was alarming -- not only did he not know his team had no timeouts remaining at the end of the first half, but he threw a swing pass to James White (with no timeouts) that kept the ball in bounds, kept the clock running, and lost yardage.

Stidham's numbers were ugly, and his interception deep down the middle of the field was horribly underthrown. His statistics, though, were impacted by drops. Julian Edelman dropped two (he had three in the game), one of which went for a pick-six. Ryan Izzo dropped another that would've gone for good yardage.

Most concerning about the overall performance from the two Patriots signal-callers though might've been what they did when they weren't pressured. With no one around them, they went 15-for-27 for 121 yards, one touchdown, two picks, a 4.5 yards-per-attempt figure and a 48.5 rating. 

3/9

Fine work here by this group, especially considering they were running behind three reserve offensive linemen.

Damien Harris has some clear burst that we haven't seen in some time from Sony Michel (placed on injured reserve last week), and his 41-yard scamper proved it. James White's return to the team yielded 21 yards on three carries (including two first downs) as well as seven catches on seven targets for a total of 38 yards. Rex Burkhead, meanwhile, averaged 4.1 yards per carry on his 11 attempts. He forced a missed tackle and picked up 29 of his 45 yards after contact.

4/9

Good awareness by Gunner Olszewski to nab Julian Edelman's first drop of the night. Good awareness by N'Keal Harry to find the football and make a diving catch in the end zone to make the score 13-10. Nice little first-down conversion on a fourth-down play to Edelman. Nice little first-down conversion on a slant (thrown behind) to Harry.

But Edelman handed the Chiefs seven points with the game still in doubt with his second of three drops in the game. Damiere Byrd had another drop. And there's nothing happening after the catch for this unit. At least there wasn't Monday. Edelman averaged 1.7 yards after the catch, Harry averaged 3.3 and Byrd averaged 4.2 -- though of Byrd's 21 yards after the catch on Monday, 13 came on a scramble-drill play late in the fourth quarter with the game all but out of reach.

5/9

There's nothing happening here through the air. Ryan Izzo dropped one of his targets and the other was picked off when Brian Hoyer sailed it to him down the seam. Devin Asiasi saw just eight snaps and no targets.

On the ground, there was a little more headway made. Izzo was at the point of attack for Damien Harris' 41-yard jaunt but continues to appear to have issues with his consistency in that phase. Jakob Johnson, who we include in this space, allowed a pressure and picked up a false start penalty. Those miscues docked this grade as well.

6/9

If we graded on a curve here, this thing might just be an "A." To have the performance that they did -- just six pressures allowed on 42 pass-blocking snaps -- was remarkable given the circumstances. David Andrews remained on IR. Shaq Mason was ruled out 90 minutes before the game. Jermaine Eluemunor was a very late scratch with a migraine.

That thrust James Ferentz into the starting center role. Rookie Mike Onwenu took over at right guard -- his college position -- and rookie Justin Herron was given the nod at right tackle. Two sixth-round rookies starting in front of backup quarterbacks, and they more than held their own.

On the ground, they helped clear space for teammates to pick up an average of 5.6 yards per carry and 185 yards total. Onwenu has been particularly impressive, as he brings remarkable size (350 pounds) but he's still light enough on his feet that the Patriots ask him to pull and wipe out defenders. Isaiah Wynn's false start penalty was the team's first offensive flag in almost 3.5 games. Great start to the season for this group. Even better when you consider all the changes they've dealt with.

7/9

Bill Belichick called punter Jake Bailey a "weapon" on Tuesday afternoon, and he wasn't kidding. Bailey's three touchbacks on kickoffs kept the ball out of the hands of speedy Chiefs return men, and he was a field-flipping force when punting. All three of his punts landed inside the Kansas City 20-yard line. His longest (58 yards) landed at the Chiefs' 11-yard line. He dropped his others at the 15 and the 5. Nice work by him.

Nick Folk's 43-yard field goal in the second quarter got the Patriots on the board and appeared to be the result of a clean operation from the specialist group. This group was one big play away from landing in the "A" range.

8/9

Lawrence Guy continues to go about his work in such a ho-hum manner, it's easy to overlook just how consistent he is on a week-to-week basis. He played more snaps (36) than any other Patriots defensive lineman, came up with a hurry and a couple of run-stuffs and was one of the primary factors as to why the Chiefs running game -- even if the Patriots played two safeties deep, meaning there were lighter boxes to run on -- averaged just 3.8 yards per carry on 25 attempts.

Deatrich Wise, Byron Cowart and Adam Butler combined for four pressures and a quarterback hit and generally did a nice job of containing Mahomes. The only time they were really hurt by Mahomes' legs was in the fourth quarter when he took off against a three-man rush. But two of the three rushers in that instance -- Chase Winovich and Derek Rivers -- were outside linebackers. 

9/9

Bill Belichick's linebacker group was key to the third-down plan in stopping Patrick Mahomes. Not only was outside linebacker Chase Winovich (three pressures, one sack) frequently asked to be one of just three pass-rushers chasing around the mobile quarterback. But Shilique Calhoun and honorary linebacker Adrian Phillips (who has been spotted working out with linebackers at practice and earlier this season was called a "linebacker at heart" by linebackers coach Jerod Mayo) were asked to lurk and disrupt the crossing routes that Chiefs coach Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy love to call.

Off the line of scrimmage, they were looking to "butch" players running inward breaking routes by shoving them at the line. Or, if they were within the five-yard strike zone, they could light up their intended target before the ball was thrown. Calhoun put Travis Kelce on his back early in the game, sending a message that it was going to be a long night if the big tight end wanted to operate in the middle of the field.

The Chiefs finished the game just 4-for-11 on third down after coming into Monday converting about 60 percent of their attempts on that money down. John Simon came through with two pressures and Anfernee Jennings ended up with two more, giving this group over half of the team's 13 in-the-pocket disruptions. If not for an early play-blown-dead signal from referee Tony Corrente, this group would've also had a Calhoun interception -- and perhaps a pick-six? -- to its name. 

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