Patriots' Brady-to-Moss connection clobbers Chargers
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The New England Patriots proved they don't need to spy to win. A few brilliant off-season acquisitions are more than enough.
The Patriots routed the San Diego Chargers 38-14 Sunday night as Tom Brady threw for 279 yards and 3 touchdowns and got 3 TDs from players picked up last spring: Randy Moss with 2 receptions and Adalius Thomas, with a 65-yard interception return.
The victory came three days after the NFL fined Patriots coach Bill Belichick $500,000, the team another $250,000 and took away what is almost sure to be a first-round draft choice.
It wasn't Belichick's spying that paid off Sunday night against a San Diego team that finished 14-2 last season but lost to New England 24-21 in its first playoff game. It was the players he brought in during the off-season -- Thomas, Moss and Wes Welker -- who combined with Brady and linebacker Rosevelt Colvin to completely dominate a team that figures to be among their main competitors in the AFC.
Moss, who had 9 catches for 183 yards and a touchdown in an identical 38-14 win over the New York Jets last week, had 8 more for 105 yards and 23 and 24-yard TD catches. Welker had 8 catches for 91 yards, including a 34-yarder on the first drive of the game that set up Brady's 7-yard TD pass to Benjamin Watson and got the Patriots (2-0) off to a quick start.
Colvin, signed as a free agent in 2003, had 2 sacks, an interception and 2 forced fumbles to help lead a defense that held LaDainian Tomlinson to 43 yards on 18 carries. He and Mike Vrabel, one of the longest-serving Patriots, combined for 2 straight sacks in the fourth quarter as the Chargers were threatening to get back in the game.
Philip Rivers threw for just 63 yards and had 2 interceptions in the first half. One of those was the romp by Thomas who grabbed a toss in the flat and raced untouched down the left sideline
Trailing 24-0 at halftime, San Diego (1-1) took the opening kickoff of the second half and moved 72 yards on 16 plays to score on a 1-yard pass from Rivers to fullback Lorenzo Neal.
However, Brady, who completed 25 of 31, drove New England right back down the field, capping the drive with his second TD pass to Moss and putting the former Minnesota and Oakland receiver over the 100-yard mark for the second times in two games as a Patriot. Moss didn't play a down in the exhibition season.
Rivers threw a 12-yard TD pass to Antonio Gates 12 seconds into the fourth quarter and finished 19-of-30 for 179 yards.
Ellis Hobbs, who had a 108-yard return for a touchdown last week, fumbled the ensuing kickoff.
Vrabel sacked Rivers for a 10-yard loss on the first play and Colvin pushed them back 10 more yards on the next play, and the Chargers had to punt.