Patriots March to Super Bowl 53 after 37-31 OT win over Chiefs
The New England Patriots controlled the game in the first half, but Kansas City forced overtime late in the fourth quarter. The Chiefs defense just couldn’t stop the Patriots in OT.
With 39 seconds left in regulation, Rex Burkhead scored to put New England up three. Then in overtime, Burkhead ran from four yards out to send the Patriots to their ninth Super Bowl appearance in the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era. It is also the third straight Super Bowl appearance for New England.
Burkhead did not score a rushing touchdown in the entire regular season, but he had two rushing scores against Kansas City in the AFC Championship Game.
The Chiefs struggled to stop the Patriots offense late in the game as the defense was obviously exhausted. In the game, KC only had 47 offensive plays, whereas New England had 94 offensive snaps.
Tom Brady led drives of at least eight plays seven different times. The Patriots scored on their first possession of the game after 15 plays. Then in overtime, New England scored after 13 plays in the only possession of overtime.
To make matters worse, the Kansas City defense nearly stopped New England three different times in overtime. The Chiefs forced three 3rd down and 10 situations for Brady. The Pats QB found Julian Edelman twice and Rob Gronkowski once.
One thing will stand out to Chief fans above all else, an offside penalty late in the fourth quarter. Standout defensive end Dee Ford lined up in the neutral zone on a play where the Chiefs intercepted the ball with 54 seconds left. Instead, the penalty nullified the INT, and New England scored two plays later.
Ford didn’t jump offside, he just lined up too far forward. Without the offside penalty, KC would get the ball with 54 seconds. However, New England still had all three timeouts, so we’ll never know how that situation would have played out.
The New England Patriots will battle the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl 53, which you can hear on our airwaves at 102.9 FM/750 AM The Game on Feb. 3.
