AP photo New England Patriots quarterback Brian Hoyer (2) is sacked by Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark (55) during the first half of Monday's 26-10 Chiefs win in Kansas City.

Well, now we know why the New England Patriots waited and likely held out hope they could get Cam Newton on a flier in late June.

They knew second year QB Jarrett Stidham wasn’t quite ready. And that veteran Brian Hoyer was a gamble.

You never know how things are going to go, but the way Monday night’s 26-10 loss to the Kansas Chiefs flowed, the Patriots would have won the game with competent quarterback play through the first three quarters.

What we know about these Patriots through the first quarter of the 2020 season is their competitive edge is not going to go away anytime soon.

It’s basic rhetoric but when Patriots head coach Bill Belichick says the team fought, he’s not taking that for granted.

“We competed hard, just didn’t make enough plays,” Belichick said.

And that’s because Newton wasn’t available after testing positive late last week for COVID-19. It was no secret that the Patriots, who make points a priority, weren’t going to get enough of them with Brian Hoyer and/or Jarrett Stidham at quarterback. Things were so bad Monday night the latter replaced the former after three quarters. The kid looked OK, but his growth has been stunted by a bad preseason and Newton’s dominanat presence when healthy.

Defensively, the Patriots held the Chiefs down. Keeping Patrick Mahomes to two TD passes in any game is a major feat. And of course, questionable calls, etc. impacted a game that seemed was there for the taking.

This is a sign of what this team is capable of. Damien Harris gave them hope that this running game, with no Sony Michel, will still thrive. Defensively they don’t fold.

It all adds up to this: They will be a tough out under any circumstances if things remain the same – an impossible thing to count on – in three months.

“We just come out and compete,” Patriots safety Devin McCourty said. “On defense we believed we could match up with them pretty well. We just try to play tough football. They’re a tough team, you’ve got to play them tough for 60 minutes.”

That’s just it. The Chiefs should have exploded past New England, but this was just another example of how well-coached the Patriots are that that didn’t happen.

“I thought defensively we gave a very competitive effort,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Tuesday. “We let them off the hook a couple times. But again, I thought we competed hard.

“We made our share of plays, just would have liked to make a couple more. I thought that we covered well and as I said, really competed well all night.”

“We know what we’re capable of doing, what they’re capable of doing,” McCourty said. “We had some good moments on defense and some plays where we didn’t play it right.

“We’ve got to have those plays against these guys. … There was a lot of focus. I think we did a good job in that area of not giving up the big play.”

It was a crazy few days. The Patriots will wait for their quarterback to return, and right now, make no mistake, Newton is their quarterback. The protocols are in place to create a close timetable for Sunday’s game vs. Denver if he remains asymptomatic. Belichick’s famous lines are “No Days Off”, or “Do Your Job”, but here’s another one he gives his team: No Excuses.

“We never make excuses,” he said. “We don’t make excuses about anything, period. That’s not what we do. We don’t make excuses.”

“That’s how the cookie crumbles,” McCourty said. “We’ve been on the other side of that. Overall we have a good group of guys. … We’re frustrated we didn’t win but I wouldn’t say we’re frustrated about the season.”

We’ve seen the Patriots at 2-2 before, and just about every time they end up in a big game callsed the Super Bowl. It certainly sounds as if the Denver Broncos had better bring their A game to Gillette, and even that may not be enough.

XXXXXX

Now that we have reached the season’s quarter pole, here are our first power rankings:

AFC

1.Kansas City (4-0). 2. Buffalo (4-0). 3. Pittsburgh (3-0). 4. Tennessee (3-0). 5. New England (2-2).

NFC

1. Seattle (4-0). 2. Green Bay (4-0). 3. Tampa Bay (3-1). 4. L.A. Rams (3-1). 5. New Orleans (2-2).