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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Trailing at home by 16 points in the third quarter on Sunday evening, the New England Patriots had already been booed off the field three times. Tom Brady, the epitome of cool, had snapped in the first half, furiously charging at a mammoth Kansas City defensive lineman after a jarring tackle. The Patriots’ beleaguered young wide receivers, blamed for everything that has troubled New Englanders this month except for last week’s snowstorm, had dropped two pivotal passes.
It appeared the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots were facing a rout in their rematch of January’s A.