Tom Brady threw two touchdown passes to Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman returned a punt 72 yards for another score as the New England Patriots beat the Kansas City Chiefs 34-3 on Monday night, increasing their AFC East lead to two games.
The Chiefs (4-6) were not expected to do much on offense behind untested quarterback Tyler Palko, making his first career start with Matt Cassel injured, and they didn’t, managing just a 26-yard field goal by Ryan Succop with 1 minute, 30 seconds left in the first quarter for their only lead.
With Gronkowski collecting his ninth and 10th touchdown receptions of the year, the Patriots had their second straight dominant game after beating the New York Jets 37-16. The Chiefs lost their third straight.
Photo: Reuters
The Patriots did not generate much of an attack during their first four series. There were three punts and a fumble by Brady that was recovered by Kansas City’s Allen Bailey on the first play of the second quarter and on his next series Brady was sacked twice.
Then the protection improved and Brady, who had thrown for just 19 yards in the first quarter, took advantage and led three consecutive scoring drives.
He connected with Gronkowski for a 52-yard score when the tight end caught the ball over the middle and scampered the last 35 yards, barely managing to remain inbounds on the right side as he neared the end zone.
Photo: AFP
Kyle Arrington, who leads the NFL with seven interceptions, got his first of the game on Kansas City’s next series and Stephen Gostkowski made it 10-3 at halftime with a 21-yard field goal.
The Patriots got the ball to start the third quarter and marched 85 yards on nine plays, scoring on Brady’s 19-yard pass to Gronkowski, who somersaulted into the right corner of the end zone after being hit by Derrick Johnson.
Gronkowski has 20 touchdowns in 26 games, surpassing Mike Ditka’s mark of 31 for the fewest games needed by a tight end to reach 20 touchdowns. He also pulled within three of the single-season, tight-end record of 13 touchdown receptions held by Antonio Gates of San Diego and Vernon Davis of San Francisco.
Just 1:03 after Gronkowski’s second touchdown, Edelman got the second punt-return touchdown of his career as the Patriots jumped to a 24-3 lead with 9:24 left in the third quarter.
Arrington picked off another pass on the Chiefs’ next possession, leading to a 19-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski.
Then, just when it looked as if Palko might direct his team to a touchdown, he threw an interception to Phillip Adams in the end zone with 10:50 left in the game. The Patriots finished the scoring on Shane Vereen’s first NFL touchdown on a four-yard run with 1:01 left.
Palko completed 25 of 38 passes for 236 yards and three interceptions. Brady was 15 of 27 for 234 yards and no interceptions.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB