Patriots finally beaten at home

A BEAT UP Patriots defence and a supercharged San Diego offence was enough to hand Super Bowl champions New England their first home defeat in nearly three years during an exciting weekend of National Football League action.

Injuries finally caught up with the Patriots and without star safety and team leader Rodney Harrison in particular, New England could find no answer at Gillette Stadium for San Diego's explosive offence in a 41-17 pummelling in Foxboro on Sunday.

After his Chargers' victory, San Diego coach Marty Schottenheimer suggested the win may have had as much to do with who wasn't playing for New England as the superior performances of his quarterback Drew Brees, running back LaDainian Tomlinson and tight end Antonio Gates.

"What they've done is remarkable," Schottenheimer said of the Patriots, who had their 21-game home winning streak snapped.

"But at what point in time do you keep responding when you have to keep putting in new players? They've done it wonderfully over the last four years, but there comes a time where it has to catch up with you, even with a team as great as this one."

This was New England's first loss in Foxboro since December 22, 2002, when they were beaten by the New York Jets. The Chargers, which have now scored 86 points in two wins after starting with two losses, were nearly unstoppable against a porous defence with Brees throwing for two touchdowns, Tomlinson running for two more and Gates racking up six catches for 108 yards.

Though the game was tied 17-all at half-time, Brees took advantage of a secondary that was already without two of its top three cornerbacks and now is missing safety Harrison, lost for the year with a knee injury.

Tomlinson finished with 134 yards on 25 carries and overall, San Diego rushed for 183 yards against a defence that also is without last year's starting inside linebackers, Tedy Bruschi and Ted Johnson.

The Patriots, coming off an emotional win in Pittsburgh a week ago, didn't want to blame the loss on the new players.

"San Diego is the better team," New England coach Bill Belichick said. "They did a good job in every area better than we did."

Schottenheimer, though, saw it from a different angle.

"I counted eight new starters out there today for them who didn't start last year," he said. "I wondered during the week, is there a point in time when you can't find enough fingers to fill the dyke?"

Elsewhere in week four, the hurricane-hit New Orleans Saints beat the Buffalo Bills 19-7 at their temporary home, the Alamodome in San Antonio.

But the Bengals, Colts, Buccaneers and Redskins are the NFL's top dogs at the moment having all maintained their 100% starts to the season.

Cincinnati are 4-0 for the first time since 1988 the last time they went to the Super Bowl after a tight 16-10 victory sent the Houston Texans to their first 0-3 start in four seasons since they joined the league as an expansion franchise.

Peyton Manning threw for 264 yards and four touchdowns as Indianapolis (4-0) won 31-10 at Nashville.

Two of his touchdown passes found Marvin Harrison, tying the NFL record of 85 for most TDs between a quarterback and receiver, equalling the mark set by Steve Young and Jerry Rice for the San Francisco 49ers.

Joey Galloway scored on an 80-yard reception and Brian Griese threw for 302 yards as Tampa Bay beat Detroit 17-13 for their first 4-0 start since 1997. While Washington needed overtime to beat Seattle 20-17.

It was a great weekend for the Manning family as Peyton's brother Eli Manning threw for 296 yards and a career-high four touchdowns as the free-scoring New York Giants pounded St Louis 44-24.

Denver continued their good recent form with a 20-7 win in Jacksonville, Dwayne Carswell catching two touchdown passes to take the Broncos to 3-1 following a miserable start in Flordia against the Miami Dolphins. The Jaguars are still in the hunt with a 2-2 record.

The Philadelphia Eagles underlined their status as Super Bowl contenders with a superb 37-31 comeback win at the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs had led 24-13 at half-time but the Eagles scored 28 unanswered points to turn the game around.

The Oakland Raiders, Baltimore Ravens and Arizona Cardinals all finally got their opening wins of the season against the New York Jets, Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers respectively.

In Mexico City, Josh McCown passed for 383 yards and two touchdowns as the Arizona Cardinals beat the San Francisco 49ers 31-14.

It was the first NFL regular season game played outside the US and attracted 105,000 fans to the Azteca Stadium.