National Football League

Patriots back on top of the league

Published Dec. 6, 2010 12:00 a.m. ET

Alex Marvez

The NFL has come full circle.

The New England Patriots are back on top.

Almost three years removed from a near-perfect season, New England is clearly the league’s top team once again. And after Monday night’s 45-3 pasting of the New York Jets, this group has proven capable of doing what the 2007 Patriots couldn’t – winning a Super Bowl title.

The NFL has another 10-win franchise, but the Atlanta Falcons couldn’t dismantle a quality opponent like New York in the same lopsided fashion. The Patriots (10-2) scored on their first four possessions and first three of the second half. The Jets (9-3) didn’t come close to keeping pace. Quarterback Mark Sanchez self-destructed even during those rare occasions when a Jets receiver sprung open. Sanchez’s awful start – he had only two completions beyond seven yards at halftime – got even worse when he was intercepted on New York’s first three second-half drives. The Jets’ special teams were dreadful, too, with a missed 53-yard field goal and 12-yard punt among the miscues.

After this debacle, New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan would be wise to shelve the Super Bowl talk for a while.

“We got our butts whooped tonight,” Sanchez said. “Outplayed, outcoached … Rex said it. You’d never imagine this.”

With four games left in the regular season, New England now has control in the AFC East and race for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. Tom Brady also cemented himself as the league’s MVP frontrunner while setting an NFL quarterback record with his 26th consecutive regular-season home victory. On a blustery night that even had Donald Trump’s famed hair flapping in a Patriots luxury suite, Brady shredded New York’s secondary for 326 yards and four touchdowns on 21 of 29 passing.

Brady claimed his team “wasn’t perfect out there.” It only seemed that way.

“It wasn’t their day,” Brady said. “It was our day.”

This victory showed how drastic a turnaround New England has made since a 28-14 road loss to the Jets in Week 2. That Patriots team featured an erratic offense that relied heavily on attention drawn by wide receiver Randy Moss and a defense still in diapers.

When the Patriots traded Moss to Minnesota in early October, skeptics wondered how New England would function without a bona fide deep threat to stretch the field. The Patriots adjusted by taking a page from their squads that won Super Bowls XXXVIII and XXXIX. New England rediscovered the running game while creating coverage mismatches with a controlled passing game.

Brady’s brilliance was on display again Monday night against one of the league’s most complex schemes. Faced with a myriad of different fronts, Brady adroitly adjusted blocking assignments with audible calls at the line of scrimmage. A Jets defense clearly missing the presence of injured free safety Jim Leonhard couldn’t keep pace matchup-wise as New England rotated a swarm of different personnel groupings featuring mighty mites (Wes Welker, Deion Branch and Danny Woodhead) and play-making rookie tight ends Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski. Eight different Patriots caught passes led by Woodhead, the ex-Jet who had four receptions out of the backfield for a ridiculous 104 yards.

“The guys we expected to make some plays for us really did make some plays,” Brady said. “We took advantage of some all-out blitz situations that we really haven’t done a good job of this year. We overcame some long yardage situations … If we execute like we did tonight, you have a great chance of winning.”

Defensively, the Patriots still have their warts. But the growing pains suffered earlier this season by one of the NFL’s youngest units are gradually fading. New England executed a game plan that featured frequent pre-snap shifts to confuse Sanchez and New York’s renowned offensive line.

The rout was on by halftime. That’s when the Patriots held an on-field ceremony honoring retired linebacker Tedy Bruschi. He mentioned a slew of names from New England’s Super Bowl-winning defenses during his speech. Nose tackle Vince Wilfork is the only current Patriots defender who carries the same kind of cachet as ex-Patriots greats like Richard Seymour, Rodney Harrison and Willie McGinest. Rookies like linebacker Brandon Spikes and cornerback Devin McCourty – both of whom intercepted Sanchez – can only hope to reach those heights.

Bruschi, though, also talked about team values being the key to New England’s championship success. These Patriots showcased many of those same earmarks Monday night while shutting up their loud-mouthed division archrival.

“All in all,” Brady said, “It was a fun night.”

By the looks of it, it won’t be the last one.