The Patriots made it clear that they're still the class of the AFC.
FOXBOROUGH -- As far as statements go, the New England Patriots couldn’t have been any louder or more obvious than they were Monday night.
By dropping the Houston Texans 42-14 at Gillette Stadium, the Pats not only proclaimed that they still reign supreme in the AFC, they also made it clear that their Super Bowl aspirations shouldn’t be taken lightly.
New England (10-3) has spent the last month showing that strides were being taken in achieving that goal, but it wasn’t until Monday night that it was presented with a measuring stick that could be used to properly gauge its progress against such lofty aspirations.
In Houston (11-2), the Patriots came up against a team that ranked in the top 10 in both total offense and defense, and found little resistance on either side of the ball.
It became clear from the early moments that the Patriots were going to post another lopsided victory in line with what they recently accomplished against the Indianapolis Colts (59-24) and New York Jets (49-19).
While it was Andre Johnson of the Texans who said this was the biggest game in their young history during the week, New England was the team that prepared to shine on the national stage. Houston, at least early on, appeared to be blinded by the lights.
On New England’s first drive, Tom Brady (21 of 35, 296 yards, four touchdowns) made it clear that he wasn’t going to let Houston’s top-five defense stop him from piecing together one of his vintage performances.
On the first drive, he hit Wes Welker up the seam for a 25-yard gain to put New England in position to score. Running back Stevan Ridley nearly blew it by fumbling on a run, but tight end Aaron Hernandez recovered the loose ball and scored on a 7-yard pass to the left corner of the end zone.
Houston came back on its next drive, and pushed into New England territory, but squandered the opportunity when quarterback Matt Schaub threw a pass to Kevin Walter in the end zone that safety Devin McCourty closed in and picked off.
New England came back the other way and pushed the advantage to 14-0 when Brady hit wide receiver Brandon Lloyd over the middle for a 37-yard gain after the defense bit on a play-action fake.
Vince Wilfork shut down the Texans next drive with a 20-yard sack and forced fumble on third down, allowing the offense to get back to work. The drive was kept alive by a 26-yard pass-interference penalty on a third-and-10 pass intended for Welker, who picked up 27 more yards on a pair of screens over the next two plays, moving New England to the 4-yard line.
Houston left Hernandez temporarily uncovered on the left sideline, who Brady hit for a touchdown to make it 21-0 with 11:01 remaining in the second quarter.
Houston limited the damage heading into halftime despite a pair of blown fourth-down attempts in the second quarter.
It wasn’t until with 9:49 remaining in the third quarter that New England struck again when Brady dropped a pass over Houston cornerback Brandon Harris and into the arms of newly signed wide receiver Donte Stallworth’s arms for a 63-yard catch-and-run touchdown that made it 28-0.
After Houston got one back, the Patriots put it back out of reach when Lloyd recovered a Danny Woodhead fumble in the end zone to make it 35-7.