Midway through the fourth quarter, the Pats defense, which had early on not been able to stop Adrian Peterson, pretty much shut down Randy Moss for much of the game to this point, as Bill Belichick had safety Brandon Meriweather shadowing him for much of the game when not screwing with him by showing cover 2 on one side of the field, and man-to-man on the other. He only had one catch for eight yards.
But one Myron Pryor hit knocked Favre out of the game midway through the fourth quarter, and in came Tavaris Jackson to throw a TD pass and execute a two-point conversion to get the Vikings within three at 21-18.
As the game approached the two-minute mark, the Pats offense was so in control of its destiny that Brady, as he told a Boston sports radio station this morning, purposely bled the clock with two quarterback sneaks, which set up another Green-Ellis TD run at 1:56 to seal the game, 28-18.
In all, Brady had one TD and 240 yards passing, Tate had one TD and 101 yards receiving, while Green-Ellis ran for two TDs and 112 yards rushing. McCourty keeps making plays, and on Halloween afternoon, he had three pass deflections, five tackles and one INT.
The Vikings pretty much took a less than 100 percent Deion Branch out of the game, but couldn't stop the aforementioned young guns and Brady from scoring four TDs and leading his team to its fifth win in a row.
Another stat worth noting: The Pats are 4-0 now when wearing throwback uniforms, as they wore bright red 1980s-era shirts yesterday afternoon.
With the Pittsburgh Steelers now 5-2 after losing to New Orleans, the Patriots, at 6-1 have the best record in not just the AFC but all of the NFL. After beating the likes of Miami, Baltimore, and San Diego among others, they are without question the best team in the AFC right now, if not all of the NFL.
Next week Belichick takes on his former underling Eric Mangini and the Cleveland Browns, who at 2-5 has the same mediocre record as the Vikings and other teams. It might be a snoozer in terms of hype to this game, but if the Pats are serious about being an elite team, they won't sleep through this road game.
Article comments
1 - Victor Lana
This was a satisfying game even for Jets fans (or at least this one who likes to see Favre lose). The Randy Moss thing is a puzzlement. Where is he going to end up?
2 - Charlie Doherty
Sitting on the couch eating cheese curls for the next week or two. Oh, you mean, after that? I'm guessing Moss will end up back with Matt Cassel and Charlie Weis with the Kansas City Chiefs. That's my best guess.