When Tom Brady suffered a severe knee injury in the first quarter of New England's win over Kansas City last Sunday, the players around him heard him scream in pain. So their solemn reaction wasn't surprising.

"It was like the helium was let out of the balloon," wide receiver Randy Moss recalled a few days ago in a conference call. "When Tom went down, everything got quiet. Guys were looking at each other with the 'deer-in-the-headlights' eyes."