It turned out that Belichick did something that the Tennessee Titans/Houston Oilers couldn’t do yesterday - challenge Brady and Moss.
The result was a 59-0 white-washing of the Titans, who fell victim to a record- setting blizzard of yards (619 total yards of offense) and points at snowy Gillette Stadium, as the Patriots provided a chilling reminder to the rest of the NFL that Brady and Moss are still capable of lighting it up on any given Sunday.
Brady was 29 of 34 for 380 yards and tied his career high with six touchdown passes, which was set during the 2007 season. He accomplished something that he didn’t even do during that record-setting season, establishing an NFL mark by throwing five of them during the second quarter, when New England outscored the Titans, 35-0, to take a 45-0 halftime lead.
For the first time since his reconstructive knee surgery this was vintage Brady. How good was No. 12? After his fourth touchdown pass of the second quarter, a 30-yarder to Wes Welker with 1:53 left in the half that put the Patriots up 38-0, Brady was 18 of 19 for 301 yards with four touchdowns.
Moss (eight catches for 129 yards) caught three of Brady’s six touchdown passes, including a 40-yard flea-flicker in the second quarter that opened the floodgates. He recorded the 62d 100-yard game of his career and his 33d multiple-TD reception game, both of which only trail Jerry Rice.
Entering the game, Moss’s longest reception of the season was 36 yards and he had just one touchdown reception.
“It was an opportunity for them to take advantage of a secondary that’s been battered and bruised,’’ said Titans safety Chris Hope. “Three of our main guys are hurt, Cortland Finnegan, Nick Harper, and Vincent Fuller. We have three rookies playing against one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game and probably one of the greatest receivers to ever play the game. It was obviously an opportunity to try to exploit that.’’
