Patriots rule East again
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The gray division championship T-shirt hung in the locker behind Tedy Bruschi. The Patriots linebacker preferred to look ahead.
“I just don’t want one T-shirt,” he said. “I want two more.”
Getting conference and Super Bowl championship shirts seems possible after New England dominated one of its toughest opponents of the season, beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 28-0 Saturday.
Tom Brady threw three touchdown passes in his 85th consecutive start despite being listed as questionable with a left shin injury. The Patriots defense sacked Chris Simms seven times and held its third straight opponent to fewer than 200 yards.
The Patriots (9-5) clinched the AFC East title for the fourth time in five seasons.
“It’s huge for us. We haven’t really played a good game against a good opponent with a good record,” tight end Christian Fauria said. “We needed to keep winning and trying to get better in December.”
After Dec. 1, the Patriots are 3-0 this season and 18-3 in the regular season since 2001.
But in their previous three wins this year, they beat the lowly New Orleans Saints, New York Jets and Buffalo Bills. Their other two wins this season against teams better than .500 came on last-minute field goals.
The Bucs came in as a hot team with four wins in five games. But they dropped to 9-5, a half-game behind Carolina (9-4), which leads the NFC South before today’s game at New Orleans.
The two-time defending Super Bowl champions – healthier after being hit hard by injuries – don’t have to worry about their division in the remaining regular-season games against the Jets and Miami.
“Until someone beats them in the playoffs, they’re the best team in the NFL,” Simms said of the Patriots.
New England got its first shutout in 36 games, while Tampa Bay was blanked for the first time in 103 games since a 45-0 loss at Oakland on Dec. 19, 1999.
“They have the best quarterback in the league,” Bucs coach Jon Gruden said of New England. “They have a great coach. They have a physical-laden team. They’re a handful.”
The Patriots outgained the Bucs 336 yards to 138 and have outscored their last three opponents 79-10 on their way to the division title.
“We knew what was at stake when we stepped out on the field,” said Patriots linebacker Rosevelt Colvin, who had a sack for the fourth straight game. “Guys were flying around making plays.”
The Patriots won for the fifth time in six games after going 4-4 in an injury-plagued first half of the season.
They scored on the game’s opening possession when Brady threw a 1-yard pass to tackle Tom Ashworth, the first career reception for the five-year veteran who was eligible on the play.
New England forced the Bucs to punt on their first four series before the offense took over again with two touchdowns in the last 2:08 of the first half, a 3-yard run by Corey Dillon and a 16-yard pass from Brady to David Givens.
Dillon made it 28-0 early in the fourth quarter on a 2-yard pass from Brady as the Bucs, who had allowed the third-fewest points in the NFL, gave up their second most of the year.
Brady “moved around in the pocket and stepped up,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “That was the key in a couple of big plays that we had.”
The Patriots held Carnell “Cadillac” Williams to 23 yards on 14 carries.
Brady set a career high with 3,888 yards this season after completing 20 of 31 passes for 258 yards.