Grade The KC Chiefs Loss To The New England Patriots

Grade the Kansas City Chiefs loss to the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football. That's a difficult request because we saw a first half Chiefs team and a second half Chiefs team -- and they weren't the same.

In the first half, Tyler Palko looked capable of managing the game for the Chiefs. Not necessarily winning, but better than I expected. KC had just three first half points but Palko didn't appear incompetent. The real story of the first half, though, was the Chiefs defense playing strong against Tom Brady and Co. -- Wes Welker had no targets, Brady was sacked three times and KC's defense played terrific minus one mistake that led to a 52-yard Rob Gronkowski touchdown.

In the second half, the wheels started to fall off and it all came like that. Like, poof, the Patriots put up 24 in a row. It was 10-3 at half and in the Pats first drive of the second half they took nine plays and about four and a half minutes to march down the field with some power rushing mixed in with Brady's precision, leading to a touchdown and a 17-3 lead. The Chiefs got the ball back, went three and out, and, just like that, Julian Edelman made it 24 in a row returning Dustin Colquitt's punt 72 yards for the score.

It was 3-0 Chiefs and in nine minutes and 57 seconds the Patriots scored 24 unanswered. That's why this is a hard game for me to grade -- the Chiefs played well at times but Brady and Co. just capitalized on every inch the Chiefs gave. Unfortunately, Palko gave them more than a few inches with three interceptions.

So a good first half and a not-so-good second half that snow-balled into a blowout. The final result was ugly -- 34-3. The score says F but the Chiefs did some good things in the first half. How do you grade the Chiefs?