Patriots, Brady buck Colts

Associated Press

FOXBOROUGH, Mass.

Tom Brady reached 500 touchdown passes for his unparalleled career and the New England Patriots put together their second straight win after a mediocre start to the season, beating Indianapolis 38-24 on Thursday night.

Brady’s 500th went to Josh Gordon. But, as he often does, Brady spread the wealth, hitting running back James White 10 times for 77 yards, and greeting the return of buddy Julian Edelman by completing seven for 57 yards to him.

Brady also tied Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri, a former teammate, for most NFL victories with 226.

Edelman caught three passes for 28 yards for Edelman on the opening 75-yard touchdown drive Brady capped with a 1-yard toss to Cordarrelle Patterson.

From there, even though the Colts (1-4) had a drive deep into New England (3-2) territory, usually reliable Adam Vinatieri missed a 38-yard field goal.

Nothing went right for Indianapolis, particularly after Brady led a 72-yard march to his sneak from the 1. He took the Patriots 68 yards at the end of the half and hit White for a 6-yard score to lead 21-3.

Under pressure, Andrew Luck threw a poor pass that Patrick Chung intercepted at midfield, and Stephen Gostkowski made a 45-yard field goal for a 24-3 halftime lead.

Luck did extend his string of games with a touchdown pass by hitting Eric Ebron on a 14-yarder in the third quarter. He has a TD throw in 28 successive games, tops of any current quarterback.

Luck drove the Colts 80 yards, including a pair of big third-down throws to Ebron, and Eric Swoope caught a 13-yard scoring pass to make it 24-17.

That’s when Brady hit the half-century mark for TD throws by connecting with Gordon for 34 yards, the 71st player to catch a touchdown pass from Brady, an NFL mark.