Final score: Chiefs 42, Patriots 27

Football is officially back, and what a glorious, unexpected start.

The Chiefs held on to get the win on the road against the reigning Super Bowl champions. Kansas City’s 42 points were the most any offense has scored against a Bill Belichick-coached defense.

Chiefs 42, Patriots 27: Kansas City got the Patriots offense off the field and got the ball back in Alex Smith’s hands again, and they’re moving with just over 2:30 to play.

Where did this Chiefs team even come from? Charcandrick West extends Kansas City’s lead yet again with a 21-yard touchdown. And Kareem Hunt set it up with a 58-yard run. This is the most yardage in a single game against a Bill Belichick-coached team ever, according to Chris Berman on the broadcast.

Chiefs 35, Patriots 27: Now Eric Berry is down with an injury. Berry pulled up lame while covering Rob Gronkowski, so it was a non-contact injury. He was carted off the field, and hopefully it’s not as serious as it looks.

Well, this is unexpected. Kareem Hunt has his third rushing touchdown of the day and the Chiefs have an eight-point lead over the Patriots in Foxborough.

Tyreek Hill was cramping, so he is probable to return.

Chiefs 28, Patriots 27: Danny Amendola had to leave the game and he’s in the concussion protocol.

The Chiefs came to play. Alex Smith hits Kareem Hunt with another deep pass — yes, we know, we can’t believe it either — for a 78-yard touchdown.

Patriots 27, Chiefs 21: A rare Tom Brady mistake, an illegal forward pass, negates a Patriots touchdown and New England settles for a field goal.

Patriots 24, Chiefs 21: This 54-yard Brandin Cooks catch is a thing of beauty, and it’s setting the Patriots up to score again.

Whoa, Travis Kelce. Hitting a guy in the crotch is definitely a penalty.

Dont’a Hightower has a knee injury and is questionable to return.

Well, that Kansas City lead didn’t last long. Mike Gillislee gets in the end zone on a 1-yard run and the Patriots re-take the lead.

That makes Gillislee the first Patriots player in history to score three rushing touchdowns in Week 1, and the first NFL player to score three touchdowns in the opening Thursday Night Football matchup. Not bad.

Chiefs 21, Patriots 17: The Kansas City defense is stepping up, and forced another punt.

Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower suffered what looks like a right leg injury after the Chiefs took over. He left the field for further examination.

The Chiefs scored on a deep ball — no, we’re not joking — from Alex Smith to Tyreek Hill.

And Hill threw up deuces at the Patriots defense on his way to the end zone.

Patriots 17, Chiefs 14: And the Chiefs didn’t score. But the Kansas City defense isn’t making things easy for Tom Brady and company, and they forced a punt. The Chiefs almost muffed the punt, but they recovered.

We’re back for the third quarter. The Chiefs get the ball to start the half, and they’ll look to actually take a lead over the Patriots.

Halftime: Patriots 17, Chiefs 14

And the Chiefs did get into the end zone on a 3-yard pass from Alex Smith to Kareem Hunt. Hunt has bounced back nicely from that fumble.

Kansas City needed to go 92 yards in just over two minutes. With 16 seconds remaining, they’re on the New England 3-yard line and could get within three points by the half.

The Chiefs defense stepped up and forced a three-and-out and the Patriots’ first punt of the night. Tyreek Hill and De’Anthony Thomas were both back to potentially return. Hill called for a fair catch, which means it’s a dead ball. But Thomas tried to run it back, which was a penalty.

Alex Smith was sacked by ... himself.

The Chiefs punted on their last possession, but whoever the poor guy who punts for the Patriots is may never see the field tonight.

Mike Gillislee showed off his patient running with six carries for 37 yards on the drive. He eventually found the end zone for the second time in the game, putting the Pats up by double digits.

And there’s not much reason for the Chiefs to be optimistic about a comeback.

Since 2001, the @Patriots are 102-1 when leading by 10+ at any point in a game at home (including playoffs).



Loss: Week 13, 2015 vs Eagles — NFL Research (@NFLResearch) September 8, 2017

Patriots 10, Chiefs 7: Stephen Gostkowski doesn’t miss often, so his first field goal attempt, to no surprise, was right down the middle. That put the Patriots back on top.

The Chiefs weren’t able to respond, giving us the first punt of the game.

First quarter: Patriots 7, Chiefs 7

Before the quarter was over, we got this filthy stiff arm from James White:

RIP, Terrance Mitchell.

But we ended the first period tied 7-all.

That Kelce option play saved the Chiefs’ scoring drive. They tied it up against New England on a 7-yard Alex Smith pass to Demetrius Harris. And we got a celebration out of it, too.

The whole thing is worth watching.

Patriots 7, Chiefs 0: The Chiefs tried running the option with tight end Travis Kelce. It worked.

Patriots 7, Chiefs 0: It looked like New England was going to capitalize on the fumble, and on a free play, Tom Brady hit Rob Gronkowski in the end zone for what initially looked like a score. The ball hit the ground, though.

Patriots 7, Chiefs 0: Not a great start for Kansas City, Kareem Hunt never lost a single fumble in college, and he lost one to the Patriots on his first NFL carry.

Patriots 7, Chiefs 0: New England picked up right where they left off, with a rushing touchdown less than three minutes into the season.

Before the game

— Marcus Peters, who protested the national anthem this season, remained seated on the bench during the anthem on Thursday.

— The Patriots unveiled their latest Super Bowl banner.

— Roger Goodell got briefly booed and quickly left the field. As if you expected any other outcome.

— The Patriots trolled the Falcons by putting 28-3 on their scoreboard before the game, because nobody can get enough of that same joke over and over again for months, apparently.

The 2017 NFL season starts Thursday night when the New England Patriots begin their title defense with a showdown that could be a preview of this winter’s AFC Championship Game. New England, the conference’s top seed in last year’s playoffs, will face 2016’s No. 2 when the Kansas City Chiefs travel to Foxborough, Mass. The game is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast live on NBC (live stream).

The Chiefs posted their best record since 2003 to claim the AFC West title last season, but a slew of missed opportunities dropped them to 1-8 in the postseason in the past 23 years. The Steelers escaped Kansas City with an 18-16 win despite not scoring a single touchdown, ending Andy Reid’s latest attempt to chase down a Super Bowl opportunity.

That loss robbed the world of a conference title showdown with the Patriots, who eventually toppled the Steelers to set up their role in the greatest NFL game of all time. The Chiefs, with a smothering secondary and a big-play athlete in Tyreek Hill, would have posed a unique threat to Tom Brady’s postseason legacy. Though New England was victorious the last time these teams met in the prior year’s playoffs, a rejuvenated Kansas City team may have been a bigger threat than Pittsburgh wound up posing.

We’ll get a better understanding of that January hypothetical Thursday, when the Chiefs won’t just battle opening night jitters, but a riled-up New England crowd that will still be buzzing from the unveiling of the franchise’s latest championship banner. Tom Brady and company will compete in a playoff-like atmosphere, where the combination of adrenaline, warm weather, and $12 beers will make Patriot fans as insufferable as ever.

Come Thursday, the Chiefs will have 60 minutes to find a way to send them home disappointed.

Pregame reading

It’s no surprise, but the Patriots lead the way in SB Nation’s 2017 NFL power rankings.

It doesn’t hurt that New England poured resources this offseason into winning with Tom Brady while it still can. The future Hall of Famer is 40 now, so the team struck big in the offseason by trading for Brandin Cooks and Phillip Dorsett, and signing Stephon Gilmore.

That massive UCLA comeback over Texas A&M was wonderfully familiar for Patriots fans.

This one had a few things in common with Super Bowl 51, such as the winning team weirdly refusing to run the clock out late, but here’s another one: both comebacks began with short scores at exactly the same point in the third quarter.

There are plenty of factors working against the Chiefs Thursday night.

The NFL started doing this season opener where the defending champion hosts the first game on Thursday night in 2004. Since then, the home team has won every time except once: the Cowboys beat the Giants in 2012.

It looks like the Patriots won the Jacoby Brissett-Phillip Dorsett trade — for now.