The Kansas City Chiefs can look back at many plays and ask themselves how they failed to defeat the New England Patriots despite scoring 40 points against the defending AFC Champions.

But perhaps no play speaks "coulda, shoulda,woulda," more than a critical third-and-goal play for the Patriots with 5:36 left. Chiefs' linebacker Breeland Speaks was about to sack Tom Brady, which would have foreced the Patriots to kick the game-tying field goal, rather than score the go-ahead touchdown.

However, Speaks didn't try to finish the Sack, allowing Brady to scramble and find the end zone to put New England up in the final minutes. You can see the video below:

But Speaks revealed that it wasn't necessarily a mental error. Rather, he was simply worried about being flagged for roughing the passer, which is bound to infuriate those who have grown tired of the ridiculous penalty calls in 2018.

"I thought the ball was gone," Speaks said, via ESPN.com. "Because I thought the ball was gone, I didn't take him to the ground. It sucks, it sucks. You're supposed to finish plays like that."

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Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Speaks can't hold himself too accountable, however. The Chiefs took a defensive penalty which would have wiped out Speaks' sack and given New England a fresh set of downs, so his missed sack wasn't costly.

And seeing how many ridiculous roughing the passer penalty calls there have been this season, there's a high chance Speaks would have been flagged anyway.

Rather, the Chiefs can ask themselves why they allowed 43 points in the contest, and quarterback Patrick Mahomes won't be happy about throwing a pair of untimely interceptions in the first half. The first pick set up the Pats for an easy touchdown, while the second one cost Kansas City at least a field goal near the end of the first half.

The good news is that the Chiefs still sit atop the AFC with a 5-1 record, and barely losing on the road to the Patriots with a banged-up defense leaves little reason to bear shame.

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