After their second loss in a row, this time against the Buffalo Bills, the Kansas City Chiefs head to Foxborough to take on the New England Patriots in a game they need to win to maintain control of their division. Luckily for Kansas City, the Patriots at 3-10 have not exactly had a great season. Bailey Zappe has taken over quarterback duties (again) from beleaguered starter Mac Jones, who has had a dismal season with only 10 touchdowns to 12 interceptions.
The Chiefs come into this game looking for a chance to get back to winning ways, and hopefully against a Patriots defense they can get their offense back in form. With their next game a Christmas showdown against the Las Vegas Raiders team that dismantled the fellow division rival Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday, the Chiefs will need to be firing on all cylinders, and a win here will put the momentum in the right direction.
The Chiefs still have issues with their receiver corps, mostly with Kadarius Toney, who has now cost the Chiefs two games on the year with silly mistakes. Between a drop a couple of weeks ago and a clear offsides penalty last week, he has become more of a liability than an asset to a wide receiver room that currently lacks any consistent performers.
For the Patriots, they have quickly become an organization in freefall. With Jones having been touted as the quarterback of the future for the franchise after a Pro Bowl rookie season, his decline has been steep, combined with an attitude problem he hasn’t quite figured out yet, the organization and fans seem ready to move on, either by handing the reigns to Zappe or by going after a quarterback like Drake Maye in the 2024 NFL Draft.
The game was flexed out of the Monday Night Football slot to Sunday afternoon, the first game ever to be flexed out of the Monday Night slot. It’ll be interesting to see if this is an approach the NFL adopts going forward.
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