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Brady's knee injury reportedly to end his season - NFL - NBCSports.com


FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Tom Brady screamed. The fans went quiet.

The seemingly indestructible star of the New England Patriots lay on the ground, clutching his left knee. The NFL’s reigning MVP and three-time Super Bowl champion was done for the day — at least. Yahoo! Sports later reported that Brady's injury is severe enough to knock him out for the year, and Peter King of NBC Sports reported that the injury was "serious."

“He was in a lot of pain. When you hear a scream, you know that,” Kansas City safety Bernard Pollard said after hitting Brady on the left leg midway through the first quarter.

Untested Matt Cassel took over, and played well as the Patriots beat the Chiefs 17-10 in Sunday’s opener. But they needed a last minute defensive stand to do it.

Now Brady's 128-game starting streak, third-longest in NFL history, is in jeopardy.

“It kind of looked bad,” Randy Moss said. “I know the show must go on and, hopefully, Matt Cassel is ready to step in.”

He was Sunday. That came as somewhat of a surprise after he failed to produce a touchdown in 17 exhibition series, leading many to wonder if he would even make the team on which he backed up Brady the past three seasons.

“He did a good job coming in and, obviously, made some big plays for us,” tackle Matt Light said. “That guy’s had a lot of criticism cast down on him and I felt like he stepped up and played like a professional.”

Still, the Patriots plummeted from an exclamation point of an unbeaten 2007 regular season to a huge question mark in 2008. They lost the Super Bowl to the New York Giants 17-14 then went 0-4 in the exhibition season while Brady had a right foot injury and missed all four games.

But for the first time in 57 games, Brady wasn’t listed on the Patriots’ injury report for Sunday’s game. He completed seven of 11 passes for 76 yards.

Cassel, who had thrown just 39 passes in his first three seasons, went 13-for-18 for 152 yards and one touchdown.

“This is something I’ve been preparing for (for) a long time. It’s not something that we expected to come up on opening day,” he said. “Since I’ve been here and been around Tom, he’s always popped back up.”

Not this time. And Kansas City also had its own quarterback woes.

Damon Huard, playing after Brodie Croyle left with a bruised shoulder late in the third quarter, completed a 68-yard pass to Devard Darling, who cornerback Deltha O’Neal ran down and tackled at the Patriots 5 with 53 seconds left.

“It was a gut check. Go get him,” said O’Neal, a two-time Pro Bowler who signed early last week. “That’s what my whole mentality was.”

The Chiefs moved no further with two incompletions, a run for no gain by Larry Johnson and a poorly aimed pass toward Dwayne Bowe.

“Matt played well,” Huard said. “At the end of the day, it’s how quarterbacks are measured.”

But, Chiefs cornerback Patrick Surtain said, “Brady is Brady. There’s only one of him.”

Last season, Brady set an NFL record with 50 touchdown passes, but it ended in disappointment with the Super Bowl loss.

They stayed calm without him Sunday.

“Worry about the consequences later,” linebacker Tedy Bruschi said. “Whoever’s in there, do your job.”

With the game scoreless, Brady was hurt when Pollard hit him low as he heaved a 28-yard completion to Moss. But Moss fumbled the ball away.

Cassel was impressive on his first possession, starting at his

2. With a third down at the 1, he threw a 51-yard completion to Moss.

“We had them deep into their territory,” defensive tackle Glen Dorsey said, “but they made a good play.”

Eight plays later, Cassel and Moss hooked up for a 10-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead.

It was Moss’ 126th touchdown, tying Jim Brown for eighth most overall, and 125th on a reception, tying him for fourth in NFL history.

The Chiefs cut the lead to 7-3 on a 40-yard field goal by Nick Novak with 17 seconds left in the half.

Cassel led another impressive drive, covering 80 yards in which he completed all four passes. Sammy Morris ended it with a 5-yard scoring run for a 14-3 lead.

The injury marred the Patriots season opener for the second straight year.

They won 38-14 at the Jets in last year’s first game, then were punished by the NFL after an employee was caught filming the Jets’ defensive signals. Belichick was fined $500,000; the team was fined $250,000, and the Patriots also lost a first-round draft choice.

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Killerchron

AFC East is up for grabs now. Look for the Buffalo Bills to surprise a lot of people with a possible run for the division. Glad I didn't draft him in fantasy football this year

Confirmed per NFL.com - Official Site of the National Football League

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circasurvivefan

The patriots will be okay to make the playoffs. Based on strength of schedule they have it pretty easy and I can't imagine too many teams beating them. They could still lose 6 and win the east in my opinion. However, I was expecting another spectacular season and I'm pretty sure they would have delivered. Brady started that game well (I still think they called too many pass plays in the opening minutes so hopefully we'll find a legit running game this season) and it's a shame such a great player has to miss a season. As much as I think Cassell sucks I have faith that he delivers something in practice and must know the offense well considering Guitierez was cut after pre season despite performing better. With Randy Moss and Wes Welker, and a decent running games the pats should be able to have a respectable season and make the playoffs. My hopes of following up last seasons heartbreak with a superbowl are pretty much dashed but I'll still cheer and support them on and take what we can out of this. If anything we'll just develop that running game and defense and then be dominant 2 years from now

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imFADED

Bills look promising but I think the Jets got this division. Thomas Jones can do what he needs to get done in NY. Cotchery is an animal. If the defense can live up to the offense then we make see a Cinderella team right here.

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Billy Shears

Makes you wonder if Belichick should have maybe given Matt Cassell some playing time last year when they were up 40 points in the 3rd quarter during most games.

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Hookahs

I believe the Pats are done this year. Brady is a great player, I don't belive they can survive without him. Sure they still have Moss, and a few other players. But Moss never won anything with or without Brady, and their defense is getting pretty old. I really don't think Belichick is tha great of of a coach (atleast without Brady), his record 41-55, one playoff win. With Brady 86-24, a big difference. Matt Cassel is no Brady, he didn't start a game for USC, and hasn't started a game since high school. Teams will not repect him, they will key on the run and blitz the hell out of them (see the Steelers). They do have a pretty easy schedule, but even with out the Bills/Jets they still lose 5 games. So, I see their record being around 8-8, maybe 9-7, Thats not going to get them into the palyoffs.

Edit: Even though the odds don't really support that.

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Billy Shears

Hookahs, I don't think you can count the Pats out just yet. No matter how good the Bills (beat an aging Seahawks team that looked ready to relinquish their NFC West crown) and Jets looked last week (they barely beat the Dolphins, who are still terrible), I think that the Patriots are still as talented as those two teams, even without Brady. Their offense will definitely take 2 steps back without Brady, but their is still plenty of firepower.

Laurence Maroney has never really had the chance to put the weight of the team on his shoulders, because he hasn't had to. But he does have superstar potential, and he will have to step up big if the Pats want to win.

And why do I think that Laurence Maroney will step up big? Because Randy Moss (and an unheralded tight end in Benjamin Watson) will keep every defense from stacking 8 or 9 in the box. If you have 1 on 1 coverage on Randy Moss, even I could throw 50 touchdowns in a season.

But the big X-factor is definitely Matt Casell. He won't have to carry the team like Brady did, but he has to manage the game wisely. He's had a couple of seasons to learn from an excellent coach and QB, so I think he can at least guide this stacked team to 10 wins and a playoff birth.