Tom Brady tied Peyton Manning for the most ever touchdown passes (including postseason), and James Develin had two short touchdown runs as the New England Patriots kept a lock on their #2 seed in the AFC by knocking off the Minnesota Vikings 24-10 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough Sunday evening.
New England (9-3) lead early 10-0 on a Develin 1 yard score and a Gostkowski field goal. Minnesota (6-5-1) rallied however, getting a very late second quarter 5 yard touchdown from Kirk Cousins to Adam Thielen, and a third quarter field goal by Dan Bailey to make it 10-10. Brady tossed a 24 yard touchdown on the next drive after the field goal to Josh Gordon for the game winner, and Develin added another short 2 yard score in the fourth to provide the difference. Develin entered the game with one touchdown in his five year career, and now has found the endzone three times in three games. Brady (24-32, 311 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception) tied Brett Favre for third place on the all time regular season touchdown passes list (508), and also tied Manning at the top of the all time list that includes playoffs (579).
Brady also became the oldest player since the NFL merger at 41 years of age to reach 1,000 yards rushing in his career. It took him 266 career games to reach that feat. In the win Sunday, New England also held Cousins to 211 yards passing and two interceptions. Devin McCourty led the defense with seven total tackles. The Patriots can wrap up yet another AFC East title with a win over Miami next Sunday at 1 pm at Hard Rock Stadium.
