Tom Brady tallied the 500th touchdown pass of his career to new Patriots addition Josh Gordon as New England rolled to a 38-24 victory over a depleted Indianapolis Colts roster on Thursday night.
Rookie Sony Michel rushed for 98 yards and a touchdown, James White caught 10 passes for 77 yards and a score and Julian Edelman added 57 yards on seven receptions in his return from suspension for the Patriots. Brady finished the night with 341 yards on 34 of 44 passing with three touchdowns, two interceptions and a rushing touchdown.
Brady became the third player in NFL history with 500 touchdown passes along with Peyton Manning (539) and Brett Favre (508). Gordon, though, was the 71st player to catch a touchdown pass from Brady, which set an NFL record.
Brady tossed a 1-yard touchdown to Cordarrelle Patterson and scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak in building an early 14-0 lead for New England. After a 45-yard Adam Vinatieri field goal, Brady hit White for a 6-yard score and Stephen Gostkowski converted a 45-yard field goal of his own to give the Patriots a 24-3 lead at halftime.
Andrew Luck led the Colts to a touchdown drive on their second possession of the second half to begin to close the gap. Luck connected with tight end Eric Ebron for a 14-yard score to narrow the lead to 24-10. A pair of Brady interceptions set up another Indianapolis scoring drive to make it a one-score game. Luck connected with Erik Swoope for a 13-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 24-17.
But Brady and the Patriots would respond, marching 75 yards on six plays with the 500th touchdown coming to Gordon to push New England’s lead to 31-17. A juggled pass by Zach Pascal was intercepted by Jonathan Jones and Michel would scamper 34 yards for a touchdown on the next play for the Patriots to put the game out of reach at 38-17.
Luck and Ebron would connect on a 1-yard score in the closing minutes to bring the final score to 38-24. Ebron caught nine passes for 105 yards and two touchdowns for the Colts.
Luck finished the night with 365 yards passing with three touchdowns and two interceptions on the night. He attempted 59 passes with 38 completions against the Patriots, which ranks as the second-most attempts in his career behind last Sunday’s 62 attempts against Houston. If Frank Reich and the Colts were concerned about the reps on Luck’s shoulder, the usage over the last two weeks doesn’t show it.
The 341 passing yards are the most for Tom Brady in the regular season since Week Three last year when he threw for 378 yards against the Texans. It’s his first 300-yard passing game in regular season since Week Eleven last year against the Oakland Raiders.
The Colts suited up just 44 players for the game due to a number of injuries heading into the game. A handful of players got banged up during Thursday’s game as well.
