FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Alfonzo Dennard watched himself on the video board as he raced 87 yards with an interception for a touchdown. He wanted to see if the star rookie who threw the pass might catch him.
The way the Patriots were playing — with their usual strong offense, big plays on defense and a touchdown on a punt return — there was no way Andrew Luck and the Colts could overtake them.
The Patriots, the NFL’s highest-scoring team, equaled their single-game scoring record for points with a 59-24 win yesterday.
“The coaches want us to play aggressive,” said Dennard, whose touchdown made it 45-17. “So that’s what I was doing out there.”
The first matchup between three-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady and star rookie Luck was no match. Brady threw three touchdown passes. Luck threw three interceptions.
But Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski left the field with about four minutes left in the game with what the team said was an arm injury. Comcast SportsNet New England reported X-rays showed Gronkowski had a broken arm. Neither the team nor Comcast SportsNet specified which arm was hurt.
Gronkowski caught two touchdown passes, giving him seven touchdown receptions in his last four games and 10 for the season. He finished the game with seven catches for 137 yards. The Patriots’ other valuable tight end Aaron Hernandez missed his third straight game and sixth overall after spraining his right ankle.
The Patriots’ much-maligned pass defense finally made major contributions as newcomer Aqib Talib returned another interception for a touchdown, covering 59 yards.
“We’ve got a lot of rookies out there so every week is a learning experience,” Colts interim coach Bruce Arians said. “It was a bad learning experience.”
The Patriots (7-3) won their fourth straight game and extended their lead in the AFC East to three games over the other three teams. The Colts (6-4) had their four-game winning streak stopped.
Now New England must hurry to prepare for its Thanksgiving night meeting with the Jets (4-6), who ended a three-game slide with a 27-13 win over the Rams.
“I don’t think we’re anywhere (near) where we need to be at this point,” Brady said.
The Patriots’ win was their most complete in a season in which they’ve averaged 35.8 points per game and lost their three games by a combined margin of four points.
They also scored on a 68-yard punt return by Julian Edelman three plays before Talib gave the Patriots the lead for good, 21-14.