National Football League

Patriots return from London with another rout

Published Oct. 26, 2009 11:06 p.m. ET

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Dominant on both sides of the Atlantic, the New England Patriots must remember that football isn't always this easy. They have time to do that with a bye week. Facing their second straight winless opponent, the Patriots scored on the fifth play of Sunday's 35-7 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. One week earlier, they beat the Tennessee Titans 59-0. Before the Bucs finally scored, the Patriots had put up 80 consecutive points, the most since Buffalo scored 86 in 1992. Now they have to improve against tougher competition. "We're definitely going to get better as we go along," linebacker Junior Seau said before the team flew home. "We have a bye week to kind of soak that all in, make the changes we need to make and go from there." The Patriots outscored their last two opponents 94-7, but the Titans and Bucs are a combined 0-13. New England leads the AFC East with a 5-2 record and next plays at home against divisional rival Miami (2-4), which led New Orleans 34-24 after three quarters but lost 46-34 Sunday. After that, two of the Patriots next three games are on the road against unbeaten teams - the Indianapolis Colts and the Saints. New Orleans poses a real threat to end the Patriots' streak of regular-season wins against NFC teams, which reached 17 against the Buccaneers, the longest by one team against the other conference since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. "We know the whole second half of the season really has a lot of challenges from week to week," coach Bill Belichick said Sunday. Tom Brady had another solid game, throwing for three touchdowns and 308 yards with two interceptions. Against Tennessee, he was 29 for 34 for 380 yards and tied his career-best with six touchdown passes. "I think we'll all reflect on the last seven weeks," Brady said, "and, hopefully, move forward with better preparation, better concentration, and go out there and be able to perform better in the last nine weeks." The third annual NFL game in London was officially a road game for New England, but the sellout crowd of 84,254 at Wembley Stadium didn't play favorites. "The fans were great," said rookie tackle Sebastian Vollmer, who was born and raised in Germany "They were cheering all the time for both football teams. That's kind of unusual because normally when you travel somewhere you don't usually get support." Brady and the Patriots struggled as recently as Oct. 11 when they lost 20-17 in overtime at Denver after Brady completed 5 of 14 passes for 63 yards in the second half. That seems like a long time ago after the two blowouts. Safety Brandon Meriweather scored on a 39-yard interception return on the first series Sunday before Brady threw scoring passes of 14 yards to Wes Welker, 54 to Sam Aiken and 35 to Benjamin Watson. The previous week, the Patriots scored three touchdowns on plays that went 38 yards or more. Until then, their longest play of the season gained just 36 yards. "In the first quarter of the season we really weren't getting any big plays," Welker said, "and I think that's really changing. And coach made a point of it, and the guys really kind of answered it. "And we want to go out there and make big plays every opportunity we get." The Patriots have done it on offense and defense. Meriweather had two interceptions and rookie cornerback Darius Butler had one for the second consecutive game. Their last two opponents gained a combined 426 yards. The Patriots had 619 against the Titans and 414 against the Buccaneers. Through Sunday's games, only Denver and Indianapolis have allowed fewer than the Patriots' average of 14 points per game. Defense will be much tougher against New Orleans (39.4 points per game) and Indianapolis (29.8), the highest averages in the NFL this season before Philadelphia played at Washington on Monday night. "We've still got some stones to build and some stones to overcome, but we're going to be all right," Meriweather said. "My level of expectation is already through the roof. I expect to be great every day." Drafted with the 24th pick out of Miami in 2007, Meriweather is emerging as a star in a young secondary. In London, he saw some historic sights, then got down to business against Tampa Bay. "We went to a haunted house that was over by Big Ben," he said. "Just to see some of my teammates act like little kids happened to be probably the best part of my weekend." Besides the win, of course.

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