INDIANAPOLIS — This was a night when Tom Brady wasn’t at his best, but the Patriots were still at their best.
On the championship checklist, being able to win a tough game when the franchise quarterback is off his game is, just like the Patriots in the AFC, right at the top.It’s hard to imagine that seven weeks ago the Patriots were 2-2 and everything but the way the parking lines are drawn at Gillette Stadium was being questioned and criticized. They wake up Monday in sole possession of the best record in the AFC (8-2) after an emphatic 42-20 pounding of the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday night. That’s six straight wins for your Patriots.
This is the team the Patriots were when they were winning Super Bowls, a Swiss Army knife that could beat you by any means necessary. They didn’t need their quarterback to be perfect, flawless, or transcendent to author signature road victories.This was a complete team win by a complete team that only needed its quarterback to be rock solid, not a rock star.Brady was, by his lofty standards, average in his dueling No. 12s matchup with Colts passing prodigy Andrew Luck. The final numbers look good — 19 of 30 for 257 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions, including an egregious pick late in the first half that jump-started the Colts.
But Brady was a passenger, not the driving force on this night.The Patriots’ offense, which rolled up 501 yards, was most effective when Brady was handing off, not flinging the ball down the field.
Led by the latest in a long line of Bill Belichick bargain bin finds, running back Jonas Gray, the Patriots ran for 244 yards and four touchdowns on 45 carries.
“I think you’ve got to be able to find different ways to win,” said Brady. “Depending on the matchup that you get you’ve got to devise a game plan that you think is going to work. Then once you get in there, see if it works, and if it is you stay with it.
“I thought tonight we showed great toughness on both sides of the football and special teams . . . It was a great win, great win on the road, against a damn good football team. They all get bigger from here.”
Just like that ill-fated night in Kansas City, Brady didn’t finish a prime-time road game, and came off the field for Jimmy Garoppolo in the fourth quarter.
But this time it was because the team around him had picked him up, not left him exposed.
Facing the No. 1 scoring offense and total offense in the NFL, the Patriots’ defense held the Colts to two touchdowns and 322 yards, 116 yards below their average.
Luck, who had turned the ball over eight times in his previous two games against the Patriots, was more careful this time. He was only picked off once, by Devin McCourty, who snagged a ball that was tipped by Darrelle Revis.
Luck finished 23 of 39 for 303 yards and two touchdowns. But the quarterback matchup ended up being irrelevant because Brady had the better T-E-A-M. While Luck’s running game was stuck in neutral with just 19 yards on 17 carries, Gray (38 carries for 199 yards and four touchdowns) was reprising the role that LeGarrette Blount played in the Patriots’ 43-22 victory over the Colts in the AFC divisional playoffs in January.
In that game, the Patriots ran 46 times for 234 yards and six touchdowns, with Blount going for 166 yards and four touchdowns to land on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Brady and the Patriots were already winners before kickoff in this meeting of AFC contenders. New England got a gift earlier in the day from the former quarterback proprietor of this place, Peyton Manning, whose Broncos lost, 22-7, to the St. Louis Rams.
That meant that if the Patriots won this Sunday night showdown they would stand alone with the AFC’s best record.
Unfortunately, the Patriots had never won at Lucas Oil Stadium (0-3). It had been a Hoosier House of Horrors for them. It was the site of the infamous fourth-and-2 call in 2009 and where another Super Bowl (Super Bowl XLVI) slipped through Wes Welker’s fingers and the Patriots’ grasp in 2012.
Leading, 14-3, with 1:25 remaining in the first half, it looked like it could be another one of those nights in this edifice wrecks.
No-look passes are welcome if you’re Rajon Rondo. They’re not if you’re Brady.
Facing third and 1 from their 17, the Patriots ran a play-action pass. Backpedaling under pressure, Brady flung a no-look pass for Rob Gronkowski that looked like it would have qualified for the infield fly rule. Indianapolis safety Mike Adams, who had picked off Brady earlier in the half, easily intercepted it and set the Colts up at the Patriots’ 23.
Three plays later, Indy cashed in, as Luck hit Hakeem Nicks for a 10-yard touchdown with 55 seconds left in the half to make it 14-10.
“It was like a no-look throw and those don’t ever end up good,” said Brady. “I thought I had a good look presnap. Gronk got through there, but I just put too much air on the ball and ended up lobbing it up right to Mike. Hopefully, there are no more of those this year.”
Patriots coach Bill Belichick then put the bike lock on Brady at the end of the half, even though there were 51 seconds and Belichick had three timeouts.
Brady atoned for a shaky first half in the second half, as the Patriots scored touchdowns on all four possessions he quarterbacked. He was 9 for 11 for 173 yards and two scores.
But this night wasn’t about Brady.
It was about seeing a team that doesn’t always need him to play like a superstar to go to the Super Bowl.
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