As crazy as it might seem, the New England Patriots might have been thrilled about stepping onto the field at a more subdued (but still awfully cantankerous) Arrowhead Stadium on Monday night.
For as much as the odds are clearly tilted in favor of Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs' bombastic aerial assault when operating from within the friendly confines of Arrowhead (16-4 home record for KC's franchise QB), the daunting road game offered New England an in-game environment that, for the first time in a long time, felt somewhat normal.
The pumped-in cheers and jeers that have served as the soundtrack of many empty sporting venues over the last few months were supplemented by the usual cacophony of noise emitted from the stands at Arrowhead — with Missouri state guidelines allowing 25% capacity within the cavernous arena for Chiefs games.
Of course, playing in front of actual fans for the first time since January didn't do much to impact New England's fortunes on Monday night, as the home club walked away with a 26-10 victory over the Patriots.
But, at the very least, those tangible cheers from a raucous (and thankfully — hopefully — masked) KC crowd served as a brief departure from the sobering reality that befell the Patriots in the days leading up to Monday's rescheduled matchup.
The game itself might have been the closest that many on New England's roster have felt to life as we all knew it before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, but the lead up was anything but normal— starting with the news on Saturday that Cam Newton tested positive for the easily transmissible virus.
After extensive testing and screenings were conducted over the weekend, the NFL pushed the previous scheduled Sunday meeting between New England / KC to Monday night at 7:05 p.m. — forcing the Patriots to charter a pair of planes over to Missouri on Monday morning in an awfully compressed schedule.
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Upon arrival, the Patriots only spent a few hours at their team hotel before busing over to Arrowhead around 3:30 — less than four hours ahead of kick-off. Following the loss, the club did not return back to the hotel but instead flew right back home to Massachusetts, with the charters expected to touch down back in the Commonwealth in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
Fair to say, hardly the kind of lead-in and pre-game prep that's conducive to winning, especially in a primetime matchup against the defending Super Bowl champions.
"Obviously, this is something that none of us have ever experienced before. A unique situation," Matthew Slater said. "I'll say this. First and foremost, we're praying for Cam and his health and hope that he's doing well. ... I think a lot of us just wanted to make sure that we were healthy and that we weren't passing it along to our families — that was the primary concern for a lot of guys. Thankfully, everyone's continued to be healthy throughout the testing. Hopefully, it stays that way. And, you know, we tried to make the best of the circumstances that we were dealt today, proud of the way the guys came out and competed, we just got to be better."
(Photo by Billie Weiss/Getty Images)
Patriots
Notebook: Patriots 'making the best of' challenging 72 hours, James White offers emotional tribute to late father
James White offers emotional tribute to his late father
James White
Deion Branch (328 catches) and Terry Glenn (329) during Monday's outing.
"Honestly, all that stuff still seems kind of surreal to me," White said following Monday's loss. "My mom continues to improve and progress and get better, so that eases things a little bit and being out on the football field kind of eases my mind a little bit too. So just trying to push through. That's what my dad would want me to do. Just trying to take it one day at a time and find a way to look at all the positives in my life.
Damien Harris breaks through
Damien Harris
Sony Michel
Rex Burkhead,
Brandon Bolden
New England is 52-2 in the regular season when one Patriots player eclipses 100 yards rushing. Prior to Monday's defeat, the Patriots only other loss was Dec. 20, 2004 at Miami when Corey Dillon rushed for 121 yards in a 29-28 loss.
"He did a great job," White said of Harris. "Being his first time being in there and getting all those carries. He ran hard and played tough. He was really excited to be out there. He gave us a spark. You gotta give credit to the offensive line. They blocked extremely hard, tight ends, receivers. .... I thought Damian played really hard."
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