FOXBOROUGH — The Patriots are rolling again, right into a playoff bye.
Tom Brady threw two touchdown passes, the defense had a season-high seven sacks and the Patriots ended a rare slump by dominating the Dolphins 28-0 yesterday.
“Hopefully, this will be a good game that we can step off from and keep working to improve,” coach Bill Belichick said.
Rebounding from two mediocre performances, the Patriots earned the second seed in the AFC and an extra week to savor the win and prepare for their postseason opener on Jan. 13.
Shortly before the game, the Patriots learned that the Texans had lost to the Colts. That meant a win would vault the Patriots into one of the two byes.
“Coach Belichick just said, “Look, the only people that can improve our position are us, so, regardless what anyone else does, we have to win,” Brady said. “And that’s what we did.”
Stevan Ridley ran for two touchdowns as New England used a ball-control offense and a defense that posted the team’s first shutout since a 59-0 rout of the Titans on Oct. 18, 2009.
The Patriots (12-4) led 21-0 at halftime on Brady’s 9-yard touchdown pass to Wes Welker and Ridley’s runs of 1 and 2 yards, capping drives lasting 14 and 13 plays. They ended the scoring on Brady’s 23-yard scoring pass to Rob Gronkowski, who missed the previous five games after breaking his left forearm.
“It felt good,” Gronkowski said. “I got limited reps, [but] you always want to get some reps before heading into the playoffs.”
Brady became the first player to throw at least one scoring pass in all 16 games for three straight seasons.
But after turning it around against the Dolphins, there are still plenty of mistakes for Belichick to point out.
“He never falls short of having a bunch of things that we need to fix,” cornerback Devin McCourty said. “There’s no coach that gets you better prepared to go into the playoffs.”
The Dolphins (7-9) finished with a losing record for the fourth straight season.
“We made progress in areas, but we have a ton of work to do,” first-year coach Joe Philbin said.