GAME 1
Patriots 38, Jets 14
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -Randy Moss, who missed most of camp with a hamstring injury, caught nine passes from Tom Brady for 183 yards and a touchdown in his New England debut.
Ellis Hobbs set an NFL record by taking the second-half kickoff 108 yards for a score.
Moss, obtained for a fourth-round choice in a draft-day trade with Oakland. established an immediate connection with Brady, even with the receiver’s missed time in training camp. Moss’ 51-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter gave the Patriots a 28-7 lead.
Brady, who faced little pressure from the Jets, was 22-of-28 for 297 yards and three touchdowns, including a 5-yarder to Benjamin Watson.
—
GAME 2
Patriots 38, Chargers 14
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – Tom Brady threw for 279 yards and three touchdowns and got three TDs from players picked up last spring: Randy Moss with two receptions, and Adalius Thomas with a 65-yard interception return.
The victory came three days after the NFL fined Patriots coach Bill Belichick $500,000, the team another $250,000 and took away a first-round draft choice, all for spying.
Moss had eight receptions for 105 yards and 23 and 24-yard TD catches. Wes Welker had eight catches for 91 yards.
—
GAME 3
Patriots 38, Bills 7
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – Tom Brady and Randy Moss teamed up again.
Brady threw two of his four scoring passes to his new deep threat, and the Patriots rolled to their third straight rout.
They’ve combined for five touchdowns and 403 yards, as Moss became the first receiver in NFL history to gain at least 100 yards receiving in each of his first three games with a new team. Moss finished the day with five catches for 115 yards.
—
GAME 4
Patriots 34, Bengals 13
CINCINNATI (AP) – Tom Brady had three more touchdown passes. Sammy Morris had one of the best games of his career. The New England defense had its way.
The Patriots remained one of the NFL’s four unbeaten teams by beating the Cincinnati Bengals 34-13 with a performance that showed their versatility.
New England’s offense energized by the addition of receivers Randy Moss, Donte’ Stallworth and Wes Welker showed it can grind it out, too.
Moss caught a pair of touchdown passes, and Morris ran for 117 yards, giving the Patriots more than enough on a night when they didn’t need a whole lot.
—
GAME 5
Patriots 34, Browns 17
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – The New England Patriots made history with a win over the Cleveland Browns, the latest victim of a powerhouse that seems to score at will.
Tom Brady threw for three touchdowns, tying an NFL record with at least three in each of his first five games. Junior Seau grabbed two interceptions, and New England became the fourth team to start a season with five wins by at least 17 points.
The Patriots never trailed for the fourth game as they moved to 5-0 for the third time in club history.
—
GAME 6
Patriots 48, Cowboys 27
IRVING, Texas (AP) – Tom Brady threw a career-high five touchdown passes, with Donte Stallworth taking the final one 69 yards to break open a tight game in the fourth quarter as the New England Patriots won in a rare battle of teams with 5-0 records.
The Patriots started strong and finished stronger, their sixth straight blowout win and their highest point total this season. New England also gave up its most points of the season and trailed in the second half for the first time this year.
Brady was sacked three times, as many as he’d been all season.
Experience in big games had to be part of the difference. Consider what the Patriots did on their final five drives after the Cowboys went ahead 24-21 early in the third quarter: touchdown, field goal, touchdown, field goal, touchdown.
Brady went 31-of-46 for 388 yards. His five TDs tied a franchise record and gave him an NFL mark with at least three in each of the first six games of the season.
—
GAME 7
Patriots 49, Dolphins 28
MIAMI (AP) – Tom Brady was flawless, even returning to the game to throw a team-record sixth touchdown pass. Brady’s TD total exceeded his career high of five, set a week earlier.
Brady, with 27 TD passes after seven games, completed his first 11 passes for 220 yards and four scores, including throws of 35 and 50 yards to Randy Moss. His other touchdown passes covered 14 and 16 yards to Wes Welker, 30 to Donte Stallworth and 2 to Kyle Brady.
Willie Andrews returned a kickoff 77 yards for a touchdown to help the Patriots lead 42-7 at the half.
The Patriots improved to 7-0 for the first time in their 48-year history.
—
GAME 8
Patriots 52, Redskins 7
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – Tom Brady threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more to help New England crush the Washington Redskins 52-7 in an easy tuneup for its battle of unbeatens at Indianapolis.
Linebacker Mike Vrabel was a force on both sides of the ball in the biggest rout in a season filled with them. He caught a touchdown pass and forced three fumbles by quarterback Jason Campbell that led to 17 points.
Halfway into the season, Brady already has a career-high 30 scoring passes. He extended his NFL record to eight games at the start of a season with at least three touchdown passes.
—
GAME 9
Patriots 24, Colts 20
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – The New England Patriots stayed on course for an unbeaten season as Tom Brady threw two touchdown passes in a four-minute span of the fourth quarter to overcome a 10-point deficit and beat Super Bowl champion Indianapolis 24-20 Sunday.
New England, which had been averaging more than 41 points a game and had beaten eight opponents by an average of more than 25 points, trailed 20-10 after Peyton Manning scored on a 1-yard sneak with 9:42 left.
However, Brady’s 55-yard completion to Randy Moss set up a 3-yard TD pass to Wes Welker. Rosevelt Colvin knocked the ball loose from Manning to force a punt on the next series. Then Brady found Kevin Faulk over the middle for 13 yards for the winning score with 3:15 left.
Jarvis Green knocked the ball lose from Manning and Colvin recovered to clinch it for New England.
—
GAME 10
Patriots 56, Bills 10
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) – Scoring touchdowns on their first seven offensive possessions and getting the eighth on a turnover, the New England Patriots won their 10th straight game, routing Buffalo.
Tom Brady was 31-of-39 for 373 yards with five TD passes, four to Randy Moss, as New England became the 10th team since 1970 to start a season 10-0.
It was the ninth time in 10 games New England won by more than 17 points and the ninth time it scored more than 34 points. The Patriots did it coming off a bye week after their only close game of the season.
Brady, who has yet to throw fewer than three touchdown passes in a game, increased his TD passes to 38. Moss’ four TD catches gave him 16 for the season.
—
GAME 11
Patriots 31, Eagles 28
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – Asante Samuel returned an interception 40 yards for a touchdown and had a second pick to shut off a late Philadelphia drive as the Patriots beat the Eagles to run their record to 11-0.
It was only the second truly competitive game of the season for New England, which trailed 28-24 midway the fourth period. Laurence Maroney’s 4-yard run at the end of a 69-yard drive put the Patriots ahead of the 22-point underdog to stay.
Then Samuel’s second interception finished the job. James Sanders added one in the final seconds.
A.J. Feeley, a career backup replacing the injured Donovan McNabb at quarterback, outplayed Tom Brady for most of the game. But Wes Welker took advantage of the blanket coverage on Randy Moss to catch a career-high 13 passes for 149 yards.
—
GAME 12
Patriots 27, Ravens 24
BALTIMORE (AP) – The New England Patriots were still perfect, but looked mighty vulnerable.
New England pulled off its greatest escape thus far to become the sixth team in NFL history to start a season with 12 victories. For the second straight week, it was a struggle against a losing team, but the incredibly resourceful Patriots got Tom Brady’s 8-yard touchdown pass to Jabar Gaffney with 44 seconds left to beat the Baltimore Ravens.
The winning drive in the final minutes covered 73 yards and required two fourth-down conversions, one on a defensive holding penalty 6 seconds before Gaffney beat Dawan Landry in the left corner of the end zone.
—
GAME 13
Patriots 34, Steelers 13
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – The Patriots were dominant again. And still unbeaten.
Tom Brady threw four touchdown passes, shattering Steelers safety Anthony Smith’s guarantee of a victory, Randy Moss caught two of them and New England crushed Pittsburgh.
The lopsided victory against the NFL’s stingiest defense followed a two-game struggle in which the Patriots needed late comebacks to beat teams with losing records.
Still, the Patriots became the fifth team with a 13-0 record, joining the 1934 Chicago Bears, 1972 Miami Dolphins, 1998 Denver Broncos and 2005 Indianapolis Colts.
The victory clinched a first-round playoff bye. Moss caught touchdown passes of 4 and 63 yards in a span of 1:59 midway through the first half and has 19 to move into second place for a season.
—
GAME 14
Patriots 20, Jets 10
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – Facing rain, wind and chilly gusts above 20 mph, New England and Tom Brady found a new way to win – running and eating up the clock in the Spygate rematch.
New England clinched home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs even though Brady failed to throw a touchdown pass for the first time in the season. Laurence Maroney ran for 104 yards, just the fourth time this season a New England rusher surpassed 100.
On New York’s second offensive play, Richard Seymour slammed Kellen Clemens to the ground in the Jets end zone, forcing a bad throw and an interception that Eugene Wilson returned 5 yards for a touchdown. Clemens didn’t return.
—
GAME 15
Patriots 28, Dolphins 7
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – The Patriots set an NFL record with their 15th win. Tom Brady and Randy Moss edged closer to two more marks.
Brady threw three touchdown passes, two to Moss, and the Patriots beat the Miami to improve to 15-0, the best start in league history. The old mark: Miami’s 14-0 in 1972 when the season lasted just 14 games.
Brady has 48 touchdown passes, one shy of Peyton Manning’s NFL record of 49 set in 2004 and tied with Dan Marino’s production in 1984.
Moss reached 21 touchdown receptions, one less than Jerry Rice’s mark of 22 set in 12 games in 1987, a strike year.
The Patriots tied their NFL record of 18 consecutive regular-season wins set in 2003-04. They also broke the league mark of 70 touchdowns in one season by the 1984 Dolphins, reaching 71.
—
GAME 16
Patriots 38, Giants 35
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) – With one mighty heave, Tom Brady and Randy Moss took care of the record books. Now it’s down to business for the unbeaten New England Patriots: stamping themselves as the greatest team in NFL history.
The Patriots completed a perfect if somewhat joyless journey through the regular season, finishing with a remarkable 16-0 record following a thrilling 38-35 comeback victory over New York.
New England became the first NFL team since the 1972 Dolphins to win every game on the schedule, and that one was only 14-0. This victory required a comeback from a 12-point deficit engineered by the brilliant Brady, and smashed the Patriots’ league mark for consecutive victories.
Jerry Rice’s record of 22 TD receptions. And the Patriots finished with an incredible 589 points for the season, another single-season record.
—
DIVISIONAL PLAYOFF
Patriots 31, Jaguars 20
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – Tom Brady was almost perfect. The Patriots still are.
Their poised and prolific quarterback knocked another mark out of the books in their record-breaking season, completing all but two of his 28 passes to lead New England to its second straight AFC championship game with a 31-20 victory over Jacksonville.
The Patriots pulled away in the second half to improve to 17-0, matching the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only team to go unbeaten from the first game of the season through the Super Bowl.
Brady completed 92.9 percent of his passes, breaking Phil Simms record of 88 percent (22-of-25) set in the Super Bowl after the 1986 season in which he led the New York Giants to a 39-20 win over the Denver Broncos.
And Brady did it mostly without Randy Moss, who had only one catch against double- and triple-coverage. Brady hit all the other receivers – throwing for three touchdowns and 262 yards.
—
AFC CHAMPIONSHIP
Patriots 21, Chargers 12
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – Despite a shaky Tom Brady, New England Patriots was still too much for the banged-up San Diego Chargers in the AFC championship game, pulling out a 21-12 victory that sent them back to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in seven seasons.
Brady made several stunningly poor throws that fluttered in the chilly wind, Randy Moss was a non-factor for the second straight game and the highest-scoring team in NFL history sputtered all afternoon. Instead, the Patriots relied on Laurence Maroney’s spins, cuts and helmet-rattling runs.
Chargers star LaDainian Tomlinson carried on the first two San Diego plays, and did not run it again because of a bad knee. Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers hung in despite a bum knee and star tight end Antonio Gates did his best with a dislocated toe.
Still, Nate Kaeding’s 24-yard field goal midway through the third period, pulled San Diego to 14-12.
Brady’s 6-yard TD pass to Wes Welker was enough for New England as Maroney ran for 122 yards to help hold the lead.
Add A Comment