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FOXBORO - For all of the victimization that Ellis Hobbs has received since the Super Bowl, the New England fourth-year cornerback, certainly wants to put past Patriots history behind him.

"You go out and make the plays and as long as, at the end of the day, you're making more positives than negatives, you know it's a good day."

It was good that the Patriots had Hobbs around. Because he made three game-saving plays in the fourth quarter to preserve a seven-point victory over the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

No sooner had Kansas City reduced the Patriots' lead to four points with 13 minutes still to be played, Hobbs took the ensuing Chiefs' kickoff and returned it 51 yards to the visitors' 36-yard line.

On Kansas City's third series of the final quarter, with over seven minutes left, Hobbs plucked off a Damon Huard pass on the very first play - the seventh of his career. Hobbs got position on Chiefs' wide receiver Dwayne Bowe, picked off the ball and gave the Patriots' possession at the Kansas City 38-yard line.

And with less than two minutes left, Hobbs sacked Huard for a six-yard loss. A play later, the Chiefs were five yards shy of the end zone. Wow, you never know how much the difference of a yard makes!

"I try to play 60 minutes," said Hobbs, who unfortunately, was victimized on Kansas City's lone touchdown, a Huard to Bowe pass two minutes into the fourth quarter. "He (Bowe) gets paid too. He went sky-high. I jumped, he jumped - he's a big body (6-foot-2)," said the 5-9 Hobbs.

"That's the life of a DB, you can't worry about that stuff."

In truth, his interception was almost the same play for the touchdown. "It was basically the same situation. He (Huard) saw that it was single coverage. I couldn't believe that he was running the same route. Instincts just took over, I stayed squared and just made a play on the ball - that's the final thing, catch the ball."

Moving on up

Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss tied former Cleveland Browns' great Jim Brown for eighth place on the all-time NFL scoring list with his 126th TD, a 10-yard reception from Matt Cassel in the second quarter. Moss' 125 TD receptions is the fourth best in the NFL and in catching six passes for 116 yards, it was his 56th 100-yard game, the third most in NFL history.

But Moss labeled Kansas City safety Bernard Pollard's hit on Patriots' QB Tom Brady as "it looked dirty. I don't really want to get into it. Without Tom Brady, the face of the New England Patriots, it kind of hurts, we lost a leader.

"I know the show must go on, but every time I looked over my shoulder I was looking at the door (to the Patriots' lockerroom). I was like a little kid at the candy store just hoping you would see that No. 12 come out those doors and up the steps."

Moss set up the Patriots' first down with a 51-yard sideline grab of a Matt Cassel pass on a third-and-11 play, a key confidence booster for all. "When you have 11 guys on the same page, good things happen," said Moss. Pollard, incidentally, the Chiefs' third-year safety out of Purdue, vehemently denied intending to hurt Brady. "I went over to my coach (Herm Edwards) and let him know that it wasn't a dirty play. It's football, I tried to get to him. I hit his knee and he let out a yell.

"I can't do anything but pray for him (Brady). Everybody knows that he's a smart player, that he makes big plays. I've got to hope that he comes back. I was not trying to put force on his knee, I was just trying to get him down."

The Chiefs, almost to a fault, wanted Brady to return to the field. "I've been through it," said running back Larry Johnson of injuries. "It hurts because he's a good football player, a good person."

All-around good guy

Patriots' second-year running back Sammy Morris - 53 yards rushing on 10 carries, 34 yards on five pass receptions - was tremendously effective. "It's been a long time for me, I haven't played since last October," said Morris, who totaled 384 yards in six games last year before suffering a sternum break...

Patriots' kicker Steve Gostkowski's 37-yard field goal with 2:26 left improved his New England-best (even better than Adam Vinatieri) accuracy race to 83.6 percent, hitting on 51 of 61 in his three seasons.

And punter Chris Hanson's 70-yard punt in the second quarter (aided by winds at 15-20 mph out of the northeast) was his longest since 2005, the longest by a New England kicker since Lee Johnson banged one 76 yards against the Bengals in the 2001 season opener...

Kansas City's 12-year veteran tight end Tony Gonzalez extended his streak to 116 consecutive games in catching a pass, leading the Chiefs with six grabs for 55 yards. "We are so young and we can play a lot better. There are some guys, without saying names, that can play better."...

One of them was Chiefs' second year wide receiver Dwayne Bowe (five catches for 49 yards), who dropped two balls, one a potential touchdown. "Too many drops for him," said KC coach Herman Edwards. "He's a better player than that."...

The Patriots lost the ball twice on first quarter fumbles, WR Wes Welker at the KC 48 and Moss at the KC 16 and Matt Cassel was sacked twice. "You can't control a lot of things that happen - you can only control what you do every play," said Patriots' center Dan Koppen.