Kansas City intercepts four Tom Brady passes as New England continues to struggle across the board against the AFC's elite.

01:00 AM EST on Monday, November 28, 2005

BY TOM E. CURRAN
Journal Sports Writer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Deion Branch was ready to leave Kansas City. He had his luggage packed, his dark blue suit on and his headphones around his neck. He was ready to leave Arrowhead Stadium, but the 26-16 loss to the Chiefs and the feeling he could have done more were going with him.

His eyes grew moist as he talked once more about the play he felt he should have made at the start of the game: a third-and-3 throw from Tom Brady that sailed high and off of Branch's fingers at the Chiefs' 22, where it was intercepted.

"I'm a football player," said Branch. "I'm supposed to make that play. I've got to make that play. I accept the responsibility. I didn't do a good job leading this team, especially in the first half. Those are the things you look back on.

"I feel the whole game fell on me. My teammates count on me. But I think about that first one, where I should have caught the ball. Who knows, you look back and see those types of things and wonder what might have happened."

Branch did not cost the Patriots yesterday's game. It was a joint effort between an inefficient offense and porous defense. But Branch's feelings are understandable. The offense knows it has no margin for error. And yesterday, it went way over the margins -- Brady in particular. His receiver's claims of responsibility don't lessen that.

Two late picks were bookends to a pair of early ones as Brady struggled to one of his worst games of his career. The final two interceptions came in Chiefs' territory when the Patriots were trying desperately to get within a field goal.

"[The throws] were just high," said

Brady. "The ball goes a little high and it's an easy interception for those guys."

The Patriots' offensive players know what's what. They have to produce. They cannot take aim at their feet and fire as they did yesterday. They don't have that luxury because, defensively, the Patriots just can't compete with good offenses right now. And the Chiefs are one of the best.

"We can't go into a game saying, 'We're going to take away this one thing,' because we can't take away anything right now," said one Patriots defender.

And the Chiefs -- like the Broncos, Colts and Chargers before them -- are a nightmare matchup for New England. Any offense with a good back, efficient quarterback and capable tight ends will feast on the Patriots. It held true yesterday as Trent Green threw for 323 yards, Larry Johnson ran for 119, and tight end Tony Gonzalez had 4 catches for 63 yards.

"It was pretty much a replay of the Denver game [when the Pats got down 28-3]," said a dour Bill Belichick. "We got too far behind too early and it was too much to come back from."

New England, amazingly, still had a pulse with a little over two minutes remaining. But on a first-down play from the Chiefs' 34, Brady looked for Tim Dwight, who juggled a pass he normally catches. Dwight got hit by Patrick Surtain and Sammie Knight picked it off at the Chiefs' 11, sealing the victory for Kansas City.

The previous drive had ended the same way. After forcing a punt, the Pats got it back with 5:56 left, the Pats picked up a first down on a fourth-and-3 to keep hopes alive. But two plays later, on a pass intended for Branch, Brady was high again and Chiefs safety Greg Wesley leaped, tipped it to himself and had his third pick of the day at the Kansas City 32.

New England had crept back in with two touchdowns after getting down 26-3.

Two big third-down conversions (15-yard Brady scramble on third-and-10, and a 15-yard throw to Daniel Graham on third-and-12) kept a drive alive and Patrick Pass capped it with a 1-yard scoring run with 4:24 left in the third quarter.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Johnson fumbled at the Patriots' 20. Predictably (and stupidly) the Chiefs went away from sending extra rushers at Brady and he went to work, hitting Branch twice and Dwight once for long gains to move the Pats to the Kansas City 6 before he found tight end Christian Fauria for a 1-yard score, making it 26-16 with 10:07 left. New England went for two, but the pass failed.

The Patriots had gotten themselves down by 23 with a parade of poor defensive series, capped when rookie Ellis Hobbs got flummoxed by wide receiver Dante Hall on a go-pattern and allowed Hall to get open for a 52-yard score that increased Kansas City's lead to 26-3.

"It was a great call by [offensive coordinator Al Saunders]," said Hall. "They bit heavy on the run play because Larry [Johnson] was gassing them and I went right by [Hobbs] and Trent put it right on the money. Great call, great execution."

"It was 26-3 -- that's a lot to make up against a team like this," said Belichick.

The Chiefs scored on every possession in the first half. Fortunately for the Patriots, four of the scores were field goals and one was a touchdown. The deficit could have been a whole lot worse than 19-3.

Six minutes into the game it was 7-0 Kansas City, as the Chiefs hit on all three trouble areas for New England. First, Green connected with Eddie Kennison for 42 yards on a simple go-route down the right side that Asante Samuel never turned around for. Then Green hit Gonzalez for 7 yards on third-and-6 to move to the Patriots 20. Johnson did the rest from there and capped the nine-play drive with a 1-yard plunge.

Brady's first interception -- the one Branch blamed himself for -- short-circuited a potential game-tying drive. And then the Chiefs went to work again, getting to a first-and-goal at the Patriots 4 before settling for a 27-yard Lawrence Tynes field goal that made it 10-0.

Brady threw his second pick of the game early in the second quarter. The Chiefs turned that into a field goal, making it 13-0.

A 29-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri was answered by Tynes' 33-yarder. And Kansas City pushed its lead to 19-3 just before the break by going 57 yards in 49 seconds to set up a 47-yarder by Tynes.