Brady off the mark in season-opening loss to Chiefs

FOXBOROUGH — Going into Thursday’s Patriots-Chiefs game, if I had told you that one quarterback would have a passer rating of 148.6 and another would finish at 70.0, it would have been an easy choice as to which quarterback ended up with which totals.

Not so fast.



In a game where Alex Smith and the Chiefs were supposed to be merely set pieces in a much larger drama aimed at celebrating the defending champions, Tom Brady was the one who struggled much of the night. In Thursday’s opener, the veteran ended up 16-for-36 for 267 yards, with no touchdowns and no picks. Meanwhile, Smith was razor-sharp for much of the evening, going 28-for-35 for 368 yards and four touchdowns.

In the end, it all added up to a rare loss for the Patriots — according to NFL Research, it was the first New England home loss of the Brady era when leading after three quarters. (They're now 105-1 in such games.)

“Any time you get pressure on him, you will not rattle him. But he’s better on the ground than he is standing up for us as a defense,” said Kansas City linebacker Justin Houston after the Chiefs sacked Brady three times.

“Any time you can put him on the ground and keep him from throwing the ball, that will help the defense out a whole lot.”

Brady had his moments in the early going. He was able to connect with Danny Amendola (six catches, 100 yards) and Brandin Cooks (three catches, 88 yards) for a few highlights, particularly in the first quarter-plus when New England jumped to a 17-7 lead and Gillette Stadium was rocking.

But he was pedestrian for most of the rest of the way. The Patriots had one second-half drive that went longer than six plays, and there were three-and-outs on four of their last 10 drives. Whether it was getting used to playing without his buddy Julian Edelman — who took part in the pregame ceremonies — or some unexpected wrinkles in the Kansas City defense, he appeared profoundly uncomfortable in key moments.

After the game, Brady dismissed the idea that the absence of Edelman factored into the problems.

“We’re going to have to do a better job,” Brady said. “He’s not coming back. So, the guys that are in there are going to have to do a good job. Every position that we have is going to have to do a better job than we did tonight.”

In fact, Brady was asked about the work of some of the new faces on offense, particularly Cooks and Mike Gilislee (three rushing touchdowns).

“Mike ran really hard,” Brady said. “Cookie made a lot of plays, drew I think four or five pass interference penalties, along with his receptions.”

One of things that might have caught him by surprise? He hinted after the game that the Chiefs were able to take away some of the short area in the middle of the field.

“They packed it in there pretty good. We had a couple plays, and then we missed a lot of plays. If that’s how teams are going to play us, then we’ve got to make plays where they’re not, and I always say I’m going to throw it where they’re not. We just didn’t come up with enough of them.”

Ultimately, like the rest of his teammates, Brady acknowledged that he and the rest of the offense has to be better if New England wants to avoid going 0-2 to start the season.

“There was nothing really positive about anything that was done, so we’ve got to get back to work,” he said. “We’ve got nine days before the next game, and hopefully we play a lot better than (Thursday).”