<table> </table> FOXBOROUGH, Mass. | Damon Huard has shown time and again that he&#8217;s at his best when the Chiefs have nowhere else to turn.</p><p>He proved it again Sunday in New England when he replaced the injured Brodie Croyle. The sluggish Chiefs offense then came to life, though their rally fell 5 yards short in a season-opening 17-10 loss to the Patriots.</p><p>The offense is Huard&#8217;s again, at least for now after Croyle separated his throwing shoulder. A timetable for Croyle&#8217;s return is unclear, but he left Gillette Stadium with his right arm in a sling and taped tightly to his body to prevent any movement on the flight home.</p><p>The Chiefs were clearly a better team after Huard took over late in the third quarter. They scored their only touchdown, a 13-yard strike from Huard to Dwayne Bowe, on his first drive.</p><p>They would have had the game-tying touchdown in the final seconds had Bowe not dropped Huard&#8217;s throw in the end zone.</p><p>The Chiefs may come to regret their decision, in their commitment to youth, to make the 35-year-old Huard an afterthought in training camp and the preseason. But coach Herm Edwards didn&#8217;t yet want to say the Chiefs might be better with Huard at the controls.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know that,&#8221; Edwards said. &#8220;We lost the game with Damon playing half the game. We&#8217;ve got to score more points. I know that. We&#8217;ve got to get more drives going. We had too many three-and-outs early in the game.&#8221;</p><p>The Chiefs had an excellent chance to shock the football world with an improbable upset. They knocked New England quarterback Tom Brady out of the game in the first quarter because of a knee injury, and the usually high-scoring Patriots turned to ball control instead.</p><p>The Chiefs didn&#8217;t need to score many points to pull it off but generated only a field goal in 2&#189; quarters with Croyle as their quarterback.</p><p>Huard revived the offense, reprising the role he played so well two years ago. Trent Green, then the starter, was knocked from the season opener because of a concussion, forcing the Chiefs to go with Huard.</p><p>He responded with one of the NFL&#8217;s top passer ratings. Huard had the Chiefs in playoff contention before giving the offense back to Green late in the season.</p><p>&#8220;Is it any different than it&#8217;s been the last few years for us?&#8221; guard Brian Waters said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve been able to bounce back, we&#8217;ve been able to fight back through some things because we know what Damon&#8217;s going to give us. We&#8217;ve known all along he&#8217;s our ace in the hole. He&#8217;s a pro.&#8221;</p><p>Still, Huard had to spend most of his summer fighting merely to avoid being tossed on the scrap heap. The Chiefs felt solid with Croyle as their starter and wanted Tyler Thigpen to be his top backup. Huard would have been expendable had the Chiefs believed Croyle and Thigpen could handle the position adequately.</p><p>In explaining why the Chiefs had Huard as their No. 2 quarterback going into the New England game, Edwards suggested it had far more to do with Thigpen&#8217;s shortcomings than Huard&#8217;s abilities.</p><p>&#8220;Thigpen after the Chicago (preseason) game was really pressing things,&#8221; Edwards said. &#8220;He turned the ball over too much for me. Against a veteran defense like this, Damon knows them pretty well. He can handle this better than Thigpen.&#8221;</p><p>For the second time in three seasons, the Chiefs are trusting their fortunes to Huard. The fact that he helped them almost pull off their chance for a stunning victory suggests the Chiefs are happy they didn&#8217;t give up on him.</p><p>&#8220;Today, we&#8217;re a better team with Damon because Brodie is hurt,&#8221; offensive coordinator Chan Gailey said. &#8220;Before the game, we were a better team with Brodie. That&#8217;s why he was the starter. The fact we scored immediately when Damon came in, I don&#8217;t think that says anything about the situation. We had made some adjustments, cleaned some things up. We were starting to run the ball better.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve just got to keep doing that. We&#8217;ve got to keep getting better, and we&#8217;ll have to do it with Damon as our quarterback.&#8221;</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="infobox-head">BRADY MAY BE DONE </span></strong><br /> &#8226;Patriots QB Tom Brady&#8217;s knee injury is serious enough to end his season, several NFL sources are reporting. <strong>| C6</strong></p><p>@ Go to <strong>KansasCity.com</strong> for more photos and updates in the Red Zone blog.</p><p></div>