New England routs Denver

For one night at least, it looked like the recent vintage New England Patriots—even without injured starting QB Tom Brady—as they used a potent offense and opportunistic defense to throttle visiting Denver 41-7 at Gillette Stadium on Monday Night.  New England methodically built a 20-0 halftime lead and continued to pour it on after the break en route to the final margin.

Matt Cassel might not have posted Pro Bowl numbers, but he was productive and mistake free with 18 of 24 passing good for 185 yards and 3 TD passes.  His solid performance was complimented by a potent running game that rushed for 257 yards, led by Sammy Morris’ 138 yards and 1 TD on 16 carries.  Most importantly, perhaps, the entire offense did a good job of holding onto the football and didn’t give up a single turnover.

The same can’t be said for Denver, who was pressured by New England’s defense into five miscues including two Jay Cutler interceptions and two lost fumbles by running back Andre Hall.  The Pats defense kept Denver off the board until early in the 4th quarter when Cutler found Daniel Graham on a 10 yard TD play to cut the deficit to 34-7 in a game that’s outcome had long since been determined.

Randy Moss summarized the Patriots’ complete performance:

"The main focus was to really play a complementary game," Moss said, "special teams, offense and defense. And I think we did that tonight. When we put all three of those things together, this team is very, very scary."

The Patriots have a tough stretch of scheduling in the next few weeks, beginning with a home date on Sunday with a revitalized St. Louis Rams team providing the opposition.  That’ll be followed by a road trip to Indianapolis on 11/2 before returning home to face a tough Buffalo Bills team on 11/9.  Denver will meet Miami on Sunday at home before hitting the road against the Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons.