Couple of first half thoughts:
-New England's front seven has looked like absolute dogshit so far. Pass rush, the biggest weakness from last year, is back in full force, and the LBs aren't playing well in coverage either. Credit to KC for coming up with some inventive play designs to keep NE's defenders on their toes, but there's been way too many cases where Alex Smith has had wide open receivers 5-7 yards downfield, or when a RB toss has gone for a similar yardage.
-KC's pass rush has been just as shaky, thankfully. There hasn't been a ton of pressure applied on Brady, but even with 3-4 man rushes Brady's had all day to throw. One play Brady had close to 10 seconds to find a receiver. I'd chalk this up to the O-Line playing well (and to some extent it is), but there's no reason any QB should have that long to throw except for maybe an end of half/game hail mary play.
-Brady has looked pretty shaky on routes past 10 yards. He overthrew Dwayne Allen on the first play from scrimmage, and that's set the tone for a number of missed throws that have probably cost New England a larger lead.
-Speaking of costing the Pats a larger lead, I don't mind the decision to go for it on fourth and one, but the decision to hand off to Mike Gillislee when KC is stacking the LoS was a terrible call. The Patriots weren't particularly good at converting by running the ball on 3rd/4th & 1 last season, and handing off to a smaller back for a run straight up the middle just seems like a poor decision all around. I still don't understand why New England has moved away from the QB sneak, which Tom Brady has an incredible career conversion rate with.
-Danny Amendola has played a much larger role than I thought; after mainly conserving him for third down and crucial situations last season, he has been all over the field, probably as a result of Malcolm Mitchell being placed on IR. Chris Hogan has played an...interesting role...mostly being used as a RB, which is something else that I don't quite understand given the abundance of speedy backs on the team.
