The Colts ran out of luck when they visited Gillette stadium on Sunday as the New England Patriots blew out Indianapolis in a 59-24 victory. The defeat ended a four game winning streak for rookie Andrew Luck and the Colts as the team were schooled by veteran quarterback and opposite number on the day Tom Brady with the Patriots dominating on both sides of the ball.
New England's defense stepped up to the plate with a big performance meaning that their offense, which at times has carried the Patriots this season, didn't take the field as much this week so it was a great all round performance. The blitz worked very well and confused Andrew Luck with the rookie ending up trying to force things in the latter stages meaning that he threw 3 picks on the day.
Things did start well for Indianapolis as Delone Carter's 1 yard touchdown run put them up by 7 within the first five minutes of the game but then New England hit back three minutes later when Tom Brady connected with Rob Gronkowski from 4 yards out for the touchdown to level it at 7-7. In the closing stages of the first Luck threw a brilliant 14 yard touchdown pass to the back of the end zone with T.Y. Hilton hauling in the pass to put the Colts 14-7 up going in to the second quarter.
The Patriots tied the game up immediately when Julian Edelman returned a punt for a touchdown with a spectacular 68 yard run. Special teams was brilliant all day for New England and Edelman himself put in an amazing performance. He performed like the playmaker any team would desire and with him racking up yardage all over the field he resembled Patriots hall of famer Troy Brown by putting on a monster game. Edelman finished the game 58 yards receiving in the air and a score, 117 yards returning off two punts and even rushed for 47 yards on his one running play.
The momentum took another big shift towards New England just a minute after the punt return when debutant and new acquisition Aqib Talib picked off Andrew Luck and returned the interception for 59 yards for the touchdown putting the Patriots 21-14 ahead. Talib made the teams secondary look very stable and the the defense as a unit took a big step forward this week with this great performance. Although one player can't change a teams fortunes with Talib and Dennard at cornerback and the likes of Devin McCourty shifting to safety this secondary is looking dangerous along with the rest of the defense which includes the likes of veteran Vince Wilfork as well as rookies Chandler Jones and Hightower up front.
A field goal each by either team meant that the Colts went in to halftime trailing 24-17. The third quarter was all for the Patriots though as Tom Brady kicked in to top gear by throwing two touchdown passes. The first was on a 2 yard play to Edelman and the second was a 24 yard pass to Gronk. Tom Brady put up brilliant numbers again with another efficient performance as he completed 24/35 passing attempts. He threw for 331 yards which included his three TD passes meaning that his season numbers after ten games now stand at a very impressive 2976 passing yards, 23 touchdown passes, only 3 interceptions and a passer rating of 102.5.
The amazing tight end Rob Gronkowski also had a brilliant day as he racked up 137 receiving yards off of 7 receptions including his two scores but sadly for New England a fantastic day was dampened by the news that Gronk broke his forearm late in the fourth which required surgery and means that one of their most influential options on offense is now out for 4-6 weeks but will be back in time for the playoffs. Thankfully for the Patriots Aaron Hernandez is back for the thanksgiving day game against the Jets meaning that they still have one head of the double-headed tight end monster available for the big AFC East matchup.
So with the Colts down 38-17 going in to the fourth Andrew Luck looked to get something going in the final quarter but was picked off in the first 13 seconds of it when Alfonzo Dennard returned the interception all the way in to Indianapolis's end zone from 87 yards. Two minutes later Luck threw his second touchdown pass on the day when he linked up with T.Y. Hilton again on a brilliant 43 yard play. The first round overall pick may not have had his best day but he still played well as he completed just over 50% of his passes and racked up 334 passing yards. Despite dropping to 6-4 after this loss the Colts schedule leaves them with a lot of winnable games so if they can regroup they can still make the post-season.
Despite the bad news the Patriots' running game this year has been a great weapon and showed its talent again in this win with Steven Ridley and Shane Vereen being the two running backs who took the snaps this weekend. Ridley is having a very productive season and rushed for 28 yards from 13 attempts for the one score, Vereen who hasn't seen as much play time but has still looked good got the most yardage on the day at running back as he rushed for 40 yards from 11 carries and also got a score. The two touchdown runs came after the Colts last score on the day and with those two scores for New England it meant that the Patriots wrapped up the huge 35 point victory in style.
The New England Patriots are now 7-3 on the season and lead the rest of the AFC East by 3 games. A win for them over the Jets on Thursday will almost certainly clinch them the division as they will then look to push on and hope that they can clinch one of the top two seeds in the AFC to try and get them a bye week in the playoffs. At this moment in time they have the third seed in the conference but with the 8-2 Baltimore Ravens having some injury problems of their own as well as New England still having to play the 9-1 Houston Texans anything is possible as the Patriots look to get home field advantage as Tom Brady and co strive to return to the Super Bowl in February hoping that they can win a fourth championship for the franchise.
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