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Scoreboard
Thursday Buffalo 19, Miami 14 Sunday Dallas 23, Cleveland 20, OT N.Y. Jets 27, St. Louis 13 Houston 43, Jacksonville 37, OT Cincinnati 28, Kansas City 6 Washington 31, Philadelphia 6 Green Bay 24, Detroit 20 Atlanta 23, Arizona 19 Tampa Bay 27, Carolina 21, OT New Orleans 38, Oakland 17 Denver 30, San Diego 23 New England 59, Indianapolis 24 Baltimore at Pittsburgh, late Open: Minnesota, N.Y. Giants, Seattle, Tennessee Monday Chicago at San Francisco, 8:30 p.m. |
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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The New England Patriots’ superb offense finally got some help from the rest of the team.
The Patriots used three scoring passes from Tom Brady, two touchdowns on interception returns and another on a punt return to match a team single-game scoring record in a 59-24 rout of the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
The first matchup between three-time Super Bowl winner Brady and star rookie Andrew Luck was no match.
The Patriots (7-3) won their fourth straight game and extended their lead in the AFC East to three games over the other three teams. The Colts (6-4) had their four-game winning streak stopped by the NFL’s best offense and one of its worst defenses.
New England lost tight end Rob Gronkowski with an arm injury late in the game. According to a report on Comcast SportsNet New England, Gronkowski has a broken forearm.
“He left the game with an arm injury,” Patriots spokesman Stacey James said about 2 1/2 hours after the game. “There was no update to that.”
Gronkowski, 23, had seven catches for 137 yards, including touchdowns of 4 and 24 yards. He was reportedly injured while blocking for an extra point on New England’s eighth touchdown.
Now New England must hurry to prepare for its Thanksgiving night meeting with the Jets (4-6). New York ended a three-game slide with a 27-13 win over the St. Louis Rams.
For the Patriots, Sunday’s win was their most complete in a season in which they’ve averaged 35.8 points per game and lost their three games by a combined margin of four points.
The 59 points equals the team mark set in a 59-0 win over the Tennessee Titans on Oct. 18, 2009.
The Patriots scored on a 68-yard punt return by Julian Edelman and on interception returns of 59 yards by newcomer Aqib Talib and 87 yards by Alfonzo Dennard. And Rob Ninkovich’s fifth forced fumble of the season set up Gronkowski’s second scoring grab on the next play.
Brady completed 24 of 35 passes for 331 yards and no interceptions. Luck was 27 for 50 for two touchdowns and 334 yards and set an NFL record as the first rookie with five 300-yard games. But he also threw three interceptions.
The Colts were competitive – for one half. The Patriots led 24-17 heading into the third quarter.
Then the Patriots scored on passes of 2 yards to Edelman and 24 yards to Gronkowski and Dennard’s interception return.
Luck followed with a 43-yard scoring pass to T.Y. Hilton, the second of the game to the fellow rookie, But the Patriots responded with touchdown runs of 3 yards by Stevan Ridley and 4 yards by Shane Vereen.
The game began with touchdowns on the first three series – a 1-yard run by Delone Carter of the Colts, a 4-yard pass from Brady to Gronkowski, and a 14-yard pass from Luck to Hilton.
Stephen Gostkowski then missed a 36-yard field goal attempt for the Patriots.
But their fortunes changed four plays later when Edelman brought a punt back for a touchdown for the third time in his career after the defense forced Luck into a three-and-out. And just three plays and 61 seconds after that, the Patriots scored again on Talib’s touchdown as the Patriots took the lead for good 21-14 with 10:59 left in the second quarter.
Luck threw the ball over Reggie Wayne’s head, and the run was exceptional as Talib cut from the right side all the way to the left, eluding numerous Colts.
