Kansas City had little trouble throwing the ball against New England's largely inexperienced secondary.

09:09 AM EST on Wednesday, November 24, 2004

BY TOM E. CURRAN
Journal Sports Writer

Journal file photo

Asante Samuel, right, shown playing against Seattle, was among several young Patriot defensive backs who didn't have good performances Monday.

KANSAS CITY -- Once again, to send get-well-soon cards to the two Tys, mail to:

Hurry back! They're on to us!

Gillette Stadium

C/O Earthwind, Randall and Asante

Foxboro, MA, 02438

Every little bit will help.

Monday night, the Kansas City Chiefs did to the Patriots what the Kansas City Chiefs do to a lot of teams -- they went up and down the field. The Patriots -- who pride themselves on not normally being lumped in with "a lot of other teams" -- were troubled.

"We were kind of scrambling around in the secondary quite a bit," Patriots head coach Bill Belichick allowed after the game. "Both teams were converting third-and-15 like it was third-and-1."

For the Chiefs' defense, that's another day at the office. For the Patriots'? Unh-unh.

What happened is easy enough to explain.

Right off the top, starting cornerbacks Tyrone Poole and Ty Law were both out and they were replaced by Earthwind Moreland, Randall Gay and Asante Samuel. Since each one of the trio has had his moments while filling in for the Tys, it became easy to forget that they are raw, raw and raw. Monday night served as a reminder.

Also afoot was the fact that New England went into Arrowhead bent on stopping the Chiefs' running game. They did that, allowing just 64 yards on 20 carries. But committing to the run required them to play a little softer in the secondary. New England stayed away from man-coverage and played its safeties back in cover-2, a coverage that allows the corners to anticipate help from the safeties.

The Patriots were willing to allow some yards and they gave up 381 of them. What they're most concerned about is giving up easy points in the passing game.

And Kansas City got those by picking on Moreland, who was twice torched by wide receiver Eddie Kennison for touchdowns.

The first one was a simple misplay by Moreland, who hesitated for a split second while covering Kennison on a go-route in the first quarter and couldn't get back on the play, an eventual 65-yard touchdown. The second, which came in the fourth quarter, occured when Moreland released Kennison in zone coverage apparently anticipating that safety Eugene Wilson was going to move over and pick up Kennison.

Wilson appeared to be otherwise occupied and Kennison scored a 26-yard touchdown.

Gay, meanwhile, sprained his elbow during the game and played through it, though he was picked on a few times. As for Samuel, who didn't start but came on for Moreland after the first KC touchdown, Johnnie Morton torched him numerous times on third down. Samuel won his share as well, but his performance was not inspiring. He also spent so much time rolling around on the ground after plays, the Revolution may soon show an interest in him.

The biggest play turned in by a cornerback was probably the one made by Troy Brown when he disrupted Kennison on a two-point conversion attempt that would have brought the Chiefs within three points late in the game.

Whether it was injuries, aptitude or Kansas City's ability, the Patriots weren't able to execute well enough in zone coverage.

"A guy comes to your area, you have to cover him," said Belichick. "Eventually zone becomes man when he comes to your area."

The Chiefs had 11 passes of 15 yards or more and converted third-and-13, 17, 4, 6 and 11. When the Patriots went to dime-coverage late in the game, Brown was playing cornerback and Don Davis was playing safety.

"We've scrambled around sometimes, but this might be taking it to a new level," Belichick said.

The Patriots have won with Moreland, Gay and Samuel. They won in St. Louis and home against the Bills. And while Wilson directed a brief but unseemly tantrum at Moreland after the second Kennison touchdown, Rodney Harrison expressed a more widely held viewpoint.

"You go through trials and tribulations," he said. "Hopefully, you learn from it and get better. Playing in this environment -- in front of the nation -- is a lot of pressure for a lot of guys. These are young guys, but we're a team, we're a unit and there are things we need to get better on. But there are some good things we did too. Understand something. We won. We made some mistakes but we won the ballgame. I'm not going to sit here and focus on the negative. I'm going to focus on the fact we won."