Brady, Pats stunned as Chiefs romp to upset
ROOKIE running back Kareem Hunt upstaged Tom Brady as the Kansas City Chiefs launched the new National Football League season with a stunning 42-27 upset of the New England Patriots on Thursday.
Ch ief s qua r terback A le x Smit h threw for 368 yards and four touchdowns to puncture the festive atmosphere as t he Super Bowl cha mpion Pat r iots ra ised t hei r cha mpionship banner in the traditional season kickof f at Gillette Stadium.
But it was 22-year-old Hunt who stole the show for the Chiefs, recovering from a fumble on his first possession to finish a debut to remember with three touchdowns.
“We just stuck together,” Hunt said. “We’re like the underdogs – a lot of people didn’t believe in us. We just wanted to come out and shock the world.”
Smith, meanwhile, produced a virtuoso display at quarterback for the Chiefs, completing 28 of 35 pass attempts with no interceptions.
Brady had a frustrating night, throwing for 267 yards and no touchdowns. The 40-year-old five-time Super Bowl champion completed only 16 of 36 attempts.
“It’s a terrible feeling,” a stony-faced Brady said after the defeat. “But the only guys that can do something about it are back in that locker room. We’ve got to dig a lot deeper than we did tonight – because we didn’t dig very deep tonight.”
Patriots coach Bill Belichick was typically blunt in his assessment of the loss.
“We didn’t really do much of any- thing well enough to deserve a win,” Belichick said. “We gave up 42 points. Gotta coach better, gotta practise better, gotta play better. We’ve got a lot of work to do. That’s obvious. So we’ll go back to work and see if we can improve pretty much everything. We made too many mistakes and our fundamentals weren’t good enough.”
The Patriots fans earlier launched the evening in Foxborough in raucous mood, raining boos down on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell at the opening ceremonies.