FOXBOROUGH – Compete, lose with dignity and maintain draft position.

That’s ultimately what every Patriots’ fan should have been rooting for on Sunday when New England hosted the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs.

And, it’s exactly what they got.

The Pats trailed by just four at halftime and looked good offensively at times, but the second half was a different story as KC came away with a 27-17 win.

The Pats are now 3-11 and still very much in the hunt for the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft with games against Denver, Buffalo and the Jets remaining. Bailey Zappe finished his day 21-31 with 180 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Hunter Henry was the leading receiver (7/66/1 TD) before he was injured and had to leave the game. As a team, New England rushed for just 52 yards. Overall, the Pats only mustered 208 yards of offense to Kansas City’s 326.

Patrick Mahomes wasn’t otherworldly, but did have 306 yards through the air and was very efficient (27-37) with two touchdowns. Mr. Swift (Travis Kelce) had just 28 yards on five catches and the Pats defense held the Chiefs to just 43 yards rushing, but it still wasn’t enough.

“There were a lot of big plays in the game,” Bill Belichick said postgame. Oddly, Belichick usually opens with a statement, but didn’t on Sunday, immediately asking reporters for questions. “We got a couple turnovers, had one called back, had another touchdown called back. There was a number of key plays in the game that could have helped us a little more than the way they turned out.

“It was competitive. They’re a good football team. They’re well-coached. Obviously, they’ve got a lot of good players. Can’t give them any extra opportunities.”

New England trailed just 14-10 at the half after holding their own in the first 30 minutes, but things quickly unraveled in fitting fashion for the 2023 campaign as the Pats punted the ball four times, turned it over on downs once and had an interception in the second half.

The Chiefs made it a seven point game with an 11-play, 64 yard drive to open the third quarter, capped with a Harrison Bunker 29 yard field goal after Kelce couldn’t hang on to a touchdown pass in the back of the end zone two snaps prior. Just one play after the kickoff, Zappe threw a horrendous ball while rolling to his right that was picked off by linebacker Willie Gay and brought back to the Pats’ six yard line. Clyde Edwards-Helaire made it hurt two plays later with a leaping six yard TD catch, quickly making it a 14-point hole for New England.

The Pats quickly had to punt and KC added to its lead with under four minutes left in the quarter, getting a 54 yard field goal from Bunker to push it to 27-10. With 9:08 left in the game, the Chiefs tried to make it interesting as Kadarius Toney had a ball from Mahomes go through his hands and into the arms of Jahlani Tavai at the Kansas City 29. Two plays later, Kevin Harris broke off an 18 yard TD run to cut it to 27-17 with 8:24 on the clock.

The teams traded punts, but New England was pinned inside its own one. Eventually, the Pats went for it on 4th-&-4 and turned it over on downs at their own four yard line. Kansas City took four knees before the Pats handed it off to Kevin Harris for one final play while the crowd full of Kanas City fans roared with the final few seconds ticking down.

“Just simply not good enough,” Zappe said of his overall performance. “Started out hot in the first half again like we did the previous week. Came in here, made adjustments for what we wanted to attack. We went out in the second half, I threw an interception on the first play of the second half – which is terrible on my part. You take away that, you take away seven points and it’s a whole different game.

“Not good enough. There’s things I’m going to clean up next week and get ready for the Broncos.”

There was a different buzz in an around the stadium early on Sunday. Chiefs fans – or Taylor Swift fans, or both – packed the parking lots with a sea of red jerseys walking around. Swift was shown once on the huge screens early in the second quarter and drew arguably the biggest cheers of the day.

That’s the end of Taylor Swift content in this story.

The first half was a surprisingly entertaining one, with KC taking the four-point lead at the break. The Pats went three-and-out to start the game after a big Jalen Reagor kickoff return to start the day was negated by a holding call – a theme for the Pats throughout the first 30 minutes. New England finished the day with five penalties for 45 yards.

KC answered with a missed Butker field goal. New England marched downfield and into the red zone, but a questionable face mask call on Demario Douglas soon pushed them out and Chad Ryland missed a 41 yarder. The Chiefs made it 7-0 after one just four plays later after a 48 yard screen to Edwards-Helaire set up a four-yard pop pass TD from Jerk McKinnon to Rashee Rice.

With 7:09 left in the second quarter, the Pats tied the game at 7-7 when Zappe hit Henry for a 16 yard TD on 4th-&-2 with a beautiful touch throw, capping a 10 play, 61-yard drive that lasted 5:47. On the very next snap after the kick off, Marte Mapu came up with an impressive interception, ripping a ball away from Travis Kielce. Mapu brought it back 20 yards to the KC eight. A hold by Connor McDermott negated another Henry TD and the Pats had to settle for a 25 yard field goal from Ryland for a 10-7 lead with 4:47 to go in the half.

Mahomes pulled off a very Mahomes-esque drive to answer, moving KC down the field methodically with several third down conversions of varying length. The 11 play, 75-yard march ended with an eight yard TD catch by McKinnon to give the Chiefs the 14-10 lead.

“Look, when you’re playing a good team like this, a good defense and a good offense, you’ve got to score points,” added David Andrews. “You have to score as many as you can and we just didn’t do a good enough job of that today, finishing some drives, taking advantage of opportunities. Proud of the way the team competed, proud of the way the team fought until the last minute.”