FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — There are losses and then there are losses that leave a mark on a team. Monday night’s 41-14 embarrassment in Kansas City, which saw the New England Patriots fall to 2-2 on the young season, was one of the latter.

New England was dominated on both sides of the ball — both on the ground and through the air — in a loss that left a mark on the visitors. It comes on the heels of a hold-on-for-dear-life home win over the Oakland Raiders, a team that just fired its head coach.

Make no mistake, projected as near locks to return to an AFC title game rematch with the Denver Broncos by most prognosticators, Bill Belichick’s team is a middling squad searching for an identity after getting its teeth kicked in by Andy Reid’s Chiefs.

“We just didn’t do a good enough job really in any area; no consistency offensively, didn’t do a good job defensively against the running game, didn’t convert on third down, in the red area. Offensively, we weren’t good on third down,” Belichick said after watching the film of a game in which his team was down 17-0 at halftime and allowed 303 yards of offense through the first 30 minutes.

“We just dug ourselves a hole and then a good pass rush team, like the Chiefs are, we put ourselves in a bad situation in the second half and they capitalized on it. It’s pretty much what we talked about last night. I wouldn’t say a whole lot has changed after watching the film this morning.”

Things won’t get any easier for New England as they have a short week to prepare for a Sunday night matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals in Foxborough. The Bengals are coming to town with a 3-0 record after a bye and playing maybe as consistent football as any team in the league.

But that’s for next week, Right now, the Patriots are reeling from a dismal performance that was arguably the worst game most in the locker room can remember.

“I think the biggest thing we’re going to take away from this game is we got to play a lot better if we’re going be a good team and win games,” safety Devin McCourty said. “I’m disappointed as this is the most embarrassing game I’ve ever been a part of. We lost in every aspect. We’ll definitely learn something from this and learn a good amount. But now, it’s all about fighting and getting better and trying to play better next week.”

There is certainly not going to be much finger-pointing to worry about, either. Maybe the one good thing about a team playing putrid football across the board is that everyone lives in a glass house and therefore will keep their stones to themselves.

The offensive line has struggled. The receivers have been subpar. Brady has missed plenty of throws on the way to a 79.1 rating through four games.

Defensively, the front has been pushed around and the pass defense, though statistically impressive, hasn’t exactly been a point of fear for opposing passers, certainly not Kansas City’s Alex Smith, who completed 20 of 26 throws for three touchdowns on the way to a 144.4 rating.

“We took one on the chin,” defensive tackle Vince Wilfolk said. “They beat us like we stole something. It’s pretty bad, but we have to correct mistakes and move forward. This is a short week. We will watch the film and hopefully we never have this feeling again because it sucks to have this feeling. We knew it was going to be a tough game. They basically destroyed us.”

And that’s not something that too many teams have been able to do in the Belichick era in New England.

Tight end Rob Gronkowski is far from impressive at this point in the season, one reason why New England has the 30th ranked passing attack through four weeks. Gronkowski has been a shell of his All-Pro self, even though he leads the Patriots with three touchdown catches among his 13 receptions for 147 yards (11.3 avg). So, what is wrong?

“I would say everything — including myself — blocking, throwing, catching. Whatever it is, we’ve got to go out there, work together and get better. (We need to) do our jobs,” Gronkowski said.

REPORT CARD VS. Chiefs

–PASSING OFFENSE: D-minus — Another week and another disappointing effort for Tom Brady’s passing attack. New England never got anything going with any consistency in Kansas City, opening the game in the shotgun on the way to a three-and-out. Then as the score got more lopsided, the Chiefs picked things up in the pass rush. All told, Brady completed 14 of his 23 throws for 159 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions for a 59.9 rating. He was sacked twice, including one lost fumble, before being yanked in favor of second-round rookie Jimmy Garoppolo in the fourth quarter of the blowout. Brandon LaFell was the top target on the day, notching six catches for 119 yards, including a 44-yard catch-and-run touchdown that was irrelevant to the outcome. Rob Gronkowski also found the end zone again, from Garoppolo late, though the tight end caught just two passes. The protection was a problem once again. On a day when the Patriots had just three true receivers active, the aerial attack was again stagnant. And the players on the field seemed helpless to fix it.

–RUSHING OFFENSE: C-minus — The Chiefs came in allowing 5.1 yards per rush. The Patriots didn’t attempt a run until their second drive with two minutes to play in the first quarter. They never got anything going with any consistency on the ground. As the score got out of hand, the five active running backs became an afterthought to the offensive plan of attack. Stevan Ridley led the way with 28 yards on five attempts, but the Patriots had just seven rushes for 24 yards at the half and that equated to a mere 16 attempts for 75 yards in a game where the production on the ground wasn’t even as good as those numbers might suggest. New England didn’t seem to want to establish the run early and then couldn’t run due to the score later.

–PASS DEFENSE: C — The Chiefs don’t exactly have a high-powered passing attack, but the Alex Smith-led group did pretty much whatever it wanted against New England’s supposed No. 1 pass defense. Smith completed 20 of 26 passes for 248 yards with three touchdowns and no picks for a 144.4 rating. He was sacked twice but wasn’t under much of pressure most of the day. He hit his short throws. The Patriots missed a lot of tackles and it looked easy thanks to the success the Chiefs had establishing the running game. Darrelle Revis matched up with Dwayne Bowe at times, but New England also unleashed a lot of soft zone coverage schemes. Bowe had 81 yards on his five catches, and tight end Travis Kelce had 93 yards and a score on his game-high eight receptions. The Patriots’ pass rush was lacking. Tight coverage was lacking. Tackling was lacking. It wasn’t as ugly as the run defense, but it wasn’t impressive, either.

–RUSH DEFENSE: D — Jamaal Charles returned from a high ankle sprain and ran all over the Patriots. Charles did most of his damage running right at Chandler Jones, who was playing too many snaps as a 3-4 end getting pushed around by left tackle Eric Fisher. Charles ran for 92 of Kansas City’s 207 yards on the night, including a touchdown on his 18 attempts. Backup Knile Davis also found plenty of room to run, tallying 107 yards on 16 carries, including a 48-yard scamper. The Patriots were pushed around up front and tackled poorly to give Chiefs ball carriers plenty of extra yards. It was a bad performance for the defensive line and linebackers from New England.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: B — Yet again the Patriots’ special teams may have been the strength of the team. Matthew Slater, the captain of the unit, continues to cover punts at a Pro Bowl level. He almost single-handedly held Kansas City returner Frank Hammond to 3 yards on two returns. Ryan Allen punted well, notching a 45-yard net on his six attempts, including two downed inside the 20. He did have one touchback. The Patriots did not attempt a field goal but covered kickoffs well. The tackling the team has shown in coverage could show something to the New England defenders.

–COACHING: D-plus — New England came out flat. The Patriots decided to totally overhaul the offensive line with three guys in new positions, including two rookies making their first career start in a hostile environment. The Patriots had just three receivers active and yet came out in the shotgun and threw three straight times on the way to an opening punt. The defense failed to adjust to the Chiefs’ rushing attack that went right at Chandler Jones, who continues to seemingly be misused. Bill Belichick’s team hasn’t made adjustments well on either side. They haven’t started well in either half. The line can’t get its act together and was actually rotating like it’s a preseason game. The game plans on both sides of the ball left something to be desired. The players failed to execute and the coaches didn’t do anything to help them out either in the game plan or with in-game adjustments.