The Patriots’ quest to defend their Super Bowl 51 title took a major detour last Thursday. New England gave up 21 fourth quarter points to fall to the Chiefs at home, but an opportunity to right the ship comes Sunday afternoon. The Patriots will travel to New Orleans to face the Saints at 1 p.m. ET, broadcast live on CBS (live stream).

Tom Brady looked like a 40-year-old quarterback to start his season on a low note. The reigning Super Bowl MVP completed just 16 of his 36 passes and failed to find the end zone. While he still managed to throw for 267 yards, he looked leagues different than he had the last time we saw him in a meaningful game. He’ll have a tremendous opportunity to get back on track Sunday against a Saints secondary that allowed more passing yards per game than all but one team last fall.

Time, TV channel, and streaming info

• Time: 1 p.m. ET
• Location: Superdome, New Orleans
• TV: CBS
• Streaming: CBS All Access
• Odds: New England is favored by 4 points.

Patriots at Saints news:

• How did the Chiefs overcome a slow start to beat the Patriots? It all started in the secondary.

For much of the night, the Chiefs instead opted to drop several players into coverage and force Brady to find an open receiver. According to Pro Football Focus, Brady had an average of 2.94 seconds to pass — more than half of a second longer than his usual 2.3-2.4 seconds.

But thanks to the play of Berry and Peters, there weren’t many options. Of the passes when Brady had more than 2.6 seconds to throw, he completed just 5 of 19 attempts.

• For three confusing days, the Patriots were the NFL’s worst team.

New England is winless and the worst team in the NFL, for now. Sure, it’s temporary, but most NFL fans can and should savor this moment. Hell, here’s a meme of Brady being mad on the bench for you to delight in.

• Surprisingly, rookie Alvin Kamara was the Saints most-used running back against the Vikings.
• The Saints’ non-existent defense will be a problem against a Patriots team with plenty to prove.

Where was Sterling Moore in this game? Where was Ken Crawley? Where was De’Vante Harris? Someone told me that Harris at least suited up for the Saints and started this game, but I watched this game, and couldn’t find him anywhere near the ball.

• Here are the teams who can copy the Chiefs’ blueprint for beating the Patriots. The Saints aren’t on the list.

That’s a stud player on the defensive line, one at linebacker, and two in the secondary. Houston was able to generate pressure, Johnson was able to cover the running back out of the backfield and crowd the middle of the field, Peters erased Chris Hogan the entire game, and Berry shadowed Rob Gronkowski to great success.

The Patriots need a short-yardage wizard

The Patriots allowed bruising tailback LeGarrette Blount to leave as a free agent this spring, opting to replace the burly runner’s 18 touchdowns with a platoon of players that includes 2017 singees Mike Gillislee and Rex Burkhead. While Gillislee was proficient in finding the end zone, the team struggled in key short-yardage situations. New England came up empty on each of its fourth-and-one gambles, ending scoring drives and ultimately leading to failure in the team’s opener.

Patriots at Saints prediction:

We have an interesting disagreement on our hands: Eight of our human experts took the Patriots to win this game in their Week 2 NFL picks. However, OddsShark’s computer disagreed, saying the Saints will win.

Tony Romo is really good at his new TV job