KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Now it's Carson Palmer's turn to return the kindness and reach out to Trent Green.

When Palmer went down last January with a devastating knee injury, Green was one of the first to call the Cincinnati quarterback. Although the two barely knew each other, Green offered words of encouragement, advice drawn upon his own experience with career-threatening knee problems.

Now, on the day Palmer made a triumphant comeback by leading the Bengals to a 23-10 victory over Kansas City, Green was the one rushed to a hospital.

A brutal hit by Cincinnati's Robert Geathers in the third quarter — which the Chiefs expect to be reviewed by the league office — left the Kansas City quarterback unconscious on the turf. The game was delayed 11 minutes while he was carefully carted away on a stretcher.

He was taken to a hospital with severe neck trauma, according to Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson, but preliminary X-rays on his head and neck came back negative.

"It's tough in this kind of small fraternity of quarterbacks in this league, when you see a quarterback go down like that," Palmer said. "You just start praying for him and that's all you can do and hope for the best."

Palmer, eight months after surgeons repaired his mangled left knee, was not sharp at the beginning. But then the Bengals went to their no-huddle offense and he hit nine passes in a row.

Once Palmer found his touch, Rudi Johnson and Kenny Watson scored touchdowns in a 17-point second-quarter. Palmer was 13 for 19 for 127 yards.

The Bengals had seven sacks of Green and backup Damon Huard, running through a revamped Chiefs line which includes two new tackles.

PATRIOTS 19, BILLS 17

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — New England came back from an ugly start, going ahead on a fourth-quarter safety to beat the Buffalo Bills.

The Patriots trailed by 10 points at halftime in their first season opener. Stephen Gostkowski, the rookie replacing clutch kicker Adam Vinatieri, connected on a 32-yard field goal that tied the game at 17 with 9:33 remaining.

Exactly one minute later, the Patriots took the lead for good on the third play of Buffalo's possession when Ty Warren sacked J.P. Losman for a safety.

JETS 23, TITANS 16

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Chad Pennington, returning from two shoulder operations in as many years, threw for 319 yards and two touchdowns.

The Titans trailed 16-0 until Travis Henry tied the game, rushing for two fourth quarter touchdowns within five minutes. The Titans added 2-point conversions after each touchdown.

Pennington needed seven plays to put the Jets ahead after Justin Miller's 41-yard kickoff return. The winning score came on a 12-yard touchdown pass to Chris Baker with 2:10 left.