What to Watch For: Chiefs vs. Patriots
Saturday, January 16, 2016
The New England Patriots kick off their Super Bowl title defense when they host the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Divisional round today at Gillette Stadium. The Patriots last saw the Chiefs in 2014 when Kansas City beat New England 41-14 in Kansas City.
"We are facing a team this week that is as hot as any team in the league, playing well in all three phases of the game, well coached, they have a lot of great players, and playing really well so it will be a big challenge for us here," said Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.
After starting the season 1-5, Kansas City has won 11 straight games including a 30-0 victory over Houston last week in the wild card round.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"We have worked pretty hard to get to this point and we are going to have to have our best game. This is a great team we are playing," said Tom Brady earlier in the week.
Game time is set for 4:35 p.m.
Distractions
This has been one of the most bazaar weeks before a Patriots playoff game in recent history.
Chandler Jones
On Tuesday, the Boston Herald reported that defensive end Chandler Jones showed up at the Foxboro Police station early Sunday morning with a medical emergency. Later in the week it was reported that Jones had a bad reaction to synthetic marijuana.
"Nothing more important to me than the health and well being of our players, staff and support people in the organization. That's how it is with this organization and that's how it is with me personally and I don't think that will ever change," Belichick said .
The Patriots had released a statement earlier in the week just confirming the incident happened and noting that Jones was at practice the next day and on time.
When asked about the impact on this game, Belichick said "I can just xerox you a copy of the game plan, you can just send it to Kansas City. Would make it easier for all of us."
Jones is listed as questionable with the reason being "discipline."
Rob Gronkowski
Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is questionable to play in the game tonight after being listed on the most recent injury repot with a back and knee injury.
Gronkowski had not been on the injury report in previous weeks, since returning from knee injury against Denver, and this week he appears with multiple injuries.
One report from ESPN said that Gronkowski was at a hospital receiving pain injections and that was the reason he missed multiple days of practice. Meanwhile, an NFL network report said he did not receive any injections, just treatment, and he is ready to go.
Though he is listed as questionable, Gronkowski is expected to play. It will just be a matter of how effective he will be, which is a scary question.
Distractions or no distractions, ready or not ready, the Patriots begin their playoff run in just a few hours.
For More on this game, see What to Watch For in the Slideshow Below.
Related Slideshow: What to Watch For: Chiefs vs. Patriots
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