Patriots Leave No Gray Area

John Ahern

All week prior to yesterday's clash of AFC powers New England and Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium, all the talk revolved around the two marquee signal callers. As well as it should have been. Tom Brady has been on an absolute tear the past five weeks throwing 18 touchdowns and only 1 interception while his counterpart, Andrew Luck, has been averaging 330 yards and 3 touchdowns a game. That was the showcase. But something happened that was not in Sunday's script!

A third string rookie running back out of Notre Dame, who was very close to being cut at the end of the preseason, busted out in a huge way and stole the spotlight on nationally televised Sunday night football.

The undrafted free agent by Miami and former practice squad member of the Baltimore Ravens created his own version of "beast mode" as he smashed through the Colts defense for 199 yards on 38 carries and a franchise record 4 touchdowns. as the visitors ran away in a 42-20 beat down over slightly favored Indianapolis. Gray had as many scores on Sunday as the rest of the league combined. 


"It's kind of funny because on Saturday I walked into the building and Mr. (Robert) Kraft pulled me aside and said 'you're going to have a big game this week, so be ready'" said Gray, who played his collegiate career just three hours away in South Bend, Indiana. 


The patriots amassed 501 yards of offense, 244 of them on the ground. As a team the carried the ball 45 times with a 5.4 yard per carry average. Brady was a pedestrian 19-30 for 257 yards with 2 touchdown passes and 2 interceptions. On a day he wasn't spectacular, he was not needed to be, thanks to Gray.

The Patriots have won 6 consecutive and with Denver's loss to the Rams on Sunday, sit alone atop the conference in the race for home field throughout in the coming playoffs. The Pats entertain the 7-3 Lions on Sunday. Detroit comes off a loss at Arizona yesterday.


News And Notes

• Jonas Gray is the seventh player in NFL history to rush for 150 yards and 4 touchdown in a road game.
• Bill Belichick is 31-3 in game numbers 9-16 since 2010.
• Andrew Luck has at least 300 yard passing in each of his last 8 games, one shy of the NFL record.
• Brady's first career start was in game 3 of 2001 against the Colts, which he won. Since that day he has a win percentage of .775, the best of any starting quarterback.
  

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