Gästearea / Bannertausch » Tom Brady goes to Rob Gronkowski.

When the going gets tough Youth Tom Brady Jersey , The Patriots tight end had only three catches against the Chiefs on Sunday night, but he had big gains on each of the team's final two drives to help New England beat previously undefeated Kansas City 43-40.Gronkowski had a 42-yard catch and run to start a drive with under four minutes left that helped set up a Stephen Gostkowski field goal. Then, after Patrick Mahomes connected with Tyreek Hill on a 75-yard touchdown, Brady found the big tight end for 39 yards to the Kansas City 9.Gostkowski ended it with a 28-yard chip shot."We kept fighting. We stayed strong," Gronkowski said Monday. "It was a great night, a great football game."A five-time Super Bowl champion and three-time NFL MVP, Brady has had no trouble finding receivers in his 18-year career. But Gronkowski is one of his favorites, including 76 TD passes from the Patriots quarterback — nearly twice as many as the next most prolific Brady target."He made a big play. He's been making a lot of those his career," Brady said. "I'll keep throwing to him in the biggest moments."Gronkowski had one catch in the first quarter and then wasn't targeted again until the fourth as the Chiefs double-covered him for much of the game. But on first and 10 from their own 21 with 3:50 to play, Brady hit Gronkowski for 42 yards to set up a 50-yard field goal that made it 40-33.After Mahomes and Hill tied it, Brady dropped back from the Chiefs 48 and saw his 6-foot-6 tight end running one-on-one with cornerback Josh Shaw. He lofted a long pass into Gronkowski's arms; it took Shaw another 15 yards to bring him down."It was a really good throw," said Patriots receiver Chris Hogan, who had catches of 42 and 19 yards on back-to-back plays during the Patriots' last touchdown drive. "I knew that with Rob being there White Lawrence Guy Jersey , he had a really good chance at getting the ball. He ran a great route and set the offense up for a game-winning field goal."With three catches for 97 yards, Gronkowski finished the game with 500 career receptions — just the NFL's 15th tight end to reach the milestone. He did it in 108 games, the fourth-fastest in league history; he also hit the 7,500 yards receiving mark, the eighth tight end to do so."They just made plays when it came down to it. The quarterback is a damn good player. The tight end is a damn good player," Chiefs cornerback Orlando Scandrick said. "Those guys have been with each other a long time and you can see it. You can see the non-verbal communication. They just made more plays than us tonight. I tip my hat to Tom Brady. I tip my hat to Rob Gronkowski. I tip my hat to Julian Edelman, the whole Patriots football team."Some quick-hit thoughts on the Patriots’ prime time tilt against the Lions The broadcast operations and graphics departments of NBC’s Sunday Football certainly have their work cut out for them this week. The amount of narratives and angles littering their office white boards that must be crammed into dozens of statistical overlays and inter-play multimedia segments by Sunday must be staggering.However, having already reached a full Belichick vs. Patricia saturation level, here are a few points of interest as Sunday Night’s contest approaches.The Patriots at Ford Field: 2-1The Patriots have made two regular season trips to Detroit’s Ford Field since it opened its doors in 2002. The first was an uninspiring 20-12 road victory over the Marty Mornhinweg-led Lions in November of the stadium’s inaugural season in which Tom Brady did not throw a touchdown and was intercepted by in the red zone by rookie cornerback Chris Cash. Fortunately for New England, rookie quarterback Joey Harrington was tremendously on-brand; throwing zero touchdowns while tripling Brady’s interception total.The Patriots’ last regular season trip to Detroit was a wild Thanksgiving affair in 2010. With six minutes left in the second quarter, a Maurice Morris touchdown gave the Lions an 11-point lead. From then on, Tom Brady began carving up Detroit’s defense like *Thanksgiving pun redacted*. Wes Welker and Deion Branch each hauled in a pair of touchdowns, rookie tight end Rob Gronkowski caught five balls for 65 yards http://www.authenticsnewenglandpatriots.com/cheap-adam-butler-jersey , and newly-signed veteran kicker Shayne Graham — brought in following the demise of Stephen Gostkowski’s 56-game start streak due to a season-ending torn quad the week prior — was perfect on one field goal and six extra point attempts. When the dust settled, the Patriots left town with a 45-24 win.The Patriots were handed their first “L” at Ford Field last summer in week three of the preseason. While the “dress rehearsal” began smoothly, Julian Edelman’s ACL tear quickly put a damper on things. While the Patriots still came out on top in the box score (30-28), losing a starting wideout for the year in a preseason contest can never be categorized as anything other than a loss.A trio of concussionsEach defense experienced key personnel losses via concussion in week two. For New England, top edge defender Trey Flowers and safety Patrick Chung have been held out for practice this week, meaning the NFL regular season debuts of Derek Rivers and perhaps even JC Jackson could take place on Sunday evening. In Detroit, lock down cornerback Darius Slay has also been held out of practice while in the NFL’s concussion protocol. The team may have tipped their hand in regards to their feelings about Slay’s status for Sunday’s game by re-signing cornerback DeShawn Shead.The 6’2”, 215-pound Shead — a physical press corner who gained prominence in Seattle — signed a one-year deal with Detroit this offseason that guaranteed him $1.6 million and was worth up to $6.5 million. Surprisingly, the Lions cut him before week one. While his return could strictly be considered Slay-related, it could also speak volumes about the organization’s thoughts on 2017 second round pick Teez Tabor, who earned the first start of his NFL career last weekend in San Francisco, but was benched for a large portion of the contest for miscommunication issues.3rd down and wrongSunday’s game features a match up of two who units who simply aren’t getting the job done on third down. According to Pride of Detroit’s Jeremy Reisman, The Lions’ offense ranks 22nd in third down conversion percentage (34.5%) despite ranking 14th in yards-to-go on third down (6.83). In fact White Jeremy Hill Jersey , through two games, the Lions are actually converting at a higher clip on third down and 15+ yards to go (2/5) than they are on third down and between 4-10 yards to go (5/13).On the flip side, the Patriots’ defense, in its typical bend-but-don’t-break fashion, have allowed a less-than-stellar 48% of third downs to be converted against them. That’s good for 28th in the league.A case for the ground gameThe Lions’ front seven has been porous — to say the least — as they’ve yielded 359 yards and three touchdowns on the ground to the Jets and 49ers through the season’s first two weeks. Former Patriot Ricky Jean Francois, who won a starting gig over former second round pick A’Shawn Robinson this summer, has struggled mightily to hold up at the point of attack — as has fellow free agent acquisition Sylvester Williams. According to Jeremy Reisman, the unit hasn’t been able to set the edge with any kind of consistency, and while rookie five-tech D’Shawn Hand has been a bright spot so far, teams have quickly adjusted and attacked other areas of the defensive line. Couple these factors with a linebacking core that hasn’t been able to shed blocks with regularity, and the stage is set for a flurry of heavy-personnel package deployment from the Patriots offense on Sunday evening. Look for Josh McDaniels to get Rex Burkhead and Sony Michel into a rhythm early and often.HalftimeLil Jon will be performing at half time. That is all.Follow Brian Phillips on Twitter @BPhillips_SB