Brady stands alone

Patriots passer moves to top of all-time wins list

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey - Tom Brady's record-setting triumph over the New York Jets on Sunday was hardly smooth and easy.

It also wasn't the prettiest of his 187 regular-season wins.

Brady, who broke a tie with Peyton Manning and Brett Favre for all-time NFL regular-season victories, had to rally the New England Patriots from a two-touchdown deficit in the first half to claim a 24-17 victory and first place in the AFC East.

"I wish we had done better, but we won," said Brady, who was limited early in the week with a sore left shoulder.

"Probably a lot to learn from it. I wish we could have played better offensively. We got down early and came back. We hung in there at the end."

The Patriots (4-2) were playing their first game in 10 days after beating Tampa Bay 19-14 on Oct 5, and appeared a bit rusty as they fell behind 14-0 in the second quarter against the surprising Jets (3-3).

"This was something we needed," said safety Devin McCourty, who had an interception.

"We haven't played particularly well in the fourth quarter. I thought this was big for us as a team to win when we had to play well at the end."

New York had a chance to tie the game after getting the ball back with 1:53 remaining, but the Patriots' 32nd-ranked overall defense held on - forcing Josh McCown to throw incomplete on a desperation heave on fourth-and-16 from the Patriots 49, and ending the Jets' three-game winning streak.

"The mood in this locker room is that we gave the game away," said Jets fullback Matt Forte.

Brady, who already owned the record for combined regular-season and playoff wins, was visibly frustrated early on, but got going just before halftime as the Patriots tied it at 14 with nine seconds left in the second quarter on a two-yard TD catch by Rob Gronkowski.

Brady then marched the Patriots down the field on their opening drive of the second half, going eight plays and 75 yards to give New England its first lead at 21-14 with a 33-yard pass to Gronkowski.

Brady finished 20 of 38 for 257 yards with two TD strikes to Gronkowski and an interception. Dion Lewis also had a one-yard run for a major.

"Every time he gets mad, you know he's in the game," said Gronkowski, who missed the last game with a thigh injury. "It gets you fired up. Sometimes you get scared when you get Tom fired up."

After Stephen Gostkowski's 28-yard field goal made it 24-14 50 seconds into the fourth quarter, New York appeared to make it a one-score game again on its next possession as Austin Seferian-Jenkins took a short pass from McCown and reached over the goal line for a fouryard touchdown.

But officials reviewed the score and said the video replay showed Seferian-Jenkins slightly lost control of the ball when Malcolm Butler nudged it loose at the goal line.

Seferian-Jenkins didn't regain control until after he had stepped out of bounds, resulting in a touchback - despite the ball never hitting the ground.

That gave the Patriots back the ball - and infuriated the Jets.

"I feel like I scored," Seferian-Jenkins said. "But at the end of the day, that's what the refs called. I'm going to go with what the refs said. But I've got to have better ball security."

Jets wide receiver Jermaine Kearse was less diplomatic: "I'm pretty sure everybody's going to look back and say that was a bad call."

McCourty added: "We felt the ball was juggled a little bit, but I didn't know which way it was going to go. As a defense, we'll take it any day."

After the Patriots went three and out, the Jets were able to cut it to a one-score game on Chandler Catanzaro's 28-yard field goal with 3:40 left. But their last-minute comeback attempt fell short. The Patriots have now won 11 straight road games, the second-best streak in team history since they won 12 in a row from 2006-08.

Associated Press

(China Daily 10/17/2017 page23)