With regards to McDaniels' playcalling, I'm not convinced it's been as atrocious as it's being made out to be. Sometimes the play calls become a victim of the circumstances the offense finds itself. And the offense really didn't have that many plays to begin with in the early part of the game. Some of that was due to the offense; but some of that falls on the poor performance of the defense as well.
Let's take a closer look at the first half. The Pats get the ball about 6 minutes into the first quarter, and the first series results in 3 straight passes, 2 of which are incomplete. OK, initially that seems curious. However, it's not that difficult to see why that happened. The first pass to Vereen gained 4 yards, probably about the same as a run. That was followed by a deep pass, where the play worked had Brady not overthrown Edelman. The reality is that is a play that Brady does need to make from time to time, and that was not the worst time for a lower percentage play. Had it been complete, the Pats would have moved the ball into KC territory with a fresh set of downs to continue the drive. Next play they need to gain 6, so McDaniels calls a pass. Again, Brady should have made the play at that point. But, whatever, it's still very early in a scoreless game, so the Pats will certainly get more possessions. Move on to the next series....
The first play of the next series is a bit more curious, as it's an inside run to Vereen. I'm with those that would much rather have Ridley take the inside handoff. Then again, there could have been some intentional misdirection there. It doesn't work, but next play is 2nd-and-8 and Brady completes the first down pass to LaFell. Then there's 2 running plays: a nice one by Ridley, and another inside run to Vereen. OK, that 2nd attempt to have Vereen go inside is, IMO, a bad play call. But not fatal, as Brady connects with LaFell again to convert the 3rd down, and Vereen redeems himself with a 7 yard run. Now, here is where I do believe most of us would have a problem with the play calling: there was the useless pass to Vereen for 1 yard, then another Vereen run that goes nowhere. Ridley should have gotten the ball for one of those plays. Then there was the decision to punt in KC territory, but I'm not sure that's on McDaniels. But, the 2nd quarter is only 3 minutes old, and it's only 7-0. Still plenty of time if the defense can at least tackle the players on the next series....Ooops....
Next series starts with 5 straight passes. But the Pats do move the ball to near midfield. Then Ridley carries for 2. Then the Pats attempt 2 more passes, and the fun begins as they find themselves at 4th-and-2 again. Again, Ridley should have gotten one more carry. But the Pats again do the offense no favors by punting again on 4th-and-short while inside KC territory.
Final series of the half begins after the D actually makes a stop. The first 2 plays go as well as could be hoped: Brady gets the ball to Gronk to get the ball out of the inverse red zone. Then Ridley makes a nice 7 yard gain on first down. Then the OL goes to sleep, and Brady is forced into 2 straight incompletions. Not sure I can blame the play calling; the OL has to do their job there. In any event, the defense fails again as the half ends with the KC FG.
Bottom line is that there just weren't that many plays. And there was plenty of blame to spread around: Brady, the receivers, the OL, Belichick (calling for 2 punts on 4th-and-short) and, in a couple of places, the play calling. Had the Pats been able to convert an extra first down in one of those series, then perhaps you would have seen more runs.
In the 3rd quarter: I don't understand why McDaniels called 2 straight passes to start. I can understand the pass play on 3rd-and-6, but I would have been much happier if the first 2 plays were Ridley runs. That's on McDaniels; then again, the players didn't execute either. In the next series, I can understand the play call on a 2nd-and-7 deep in NE territory. But I'm not sure why they tried to run Vereen on the inside again on the prior play. The 3rd series disaster is on Brady, although I can still see an argument to run Ridley on the 2nd-and-5; even down 24-0 there's still time to make it a game for the 4th quarter. The next series is a quick NE TD; of course, the defense never comes on the field when KC gets the ball; instead, they make Alex Smith look like the SF incarnation of Joe Montana as the rest of the game becomes essentially an academic study. So, yes, McDaniels did have a really bad 2nd half. Then again, the play of Brady and the OL didn't do him any favors either. The reality is a bit more nuanced than the number of running plays called early in the game; there weren't many passing plays called either.