Tom Brady escaped the pocket anyway, abandoning his protection for an awkward third-down sprint of 6 yards at the end of the third quarter, with his New England Patriots already up 28-7 over the Houston Texans. New England would win 42-14 on Monday night.
Brady wanted to make a point, no matter the score, and he fired up a spoiled home crowd with an emphatic fist pump, eliciting chants of "M-V-P."
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Tom Brady escaped the pocket anyway, abandoning his protection for an awkward third-down sprint of 6 yards at the end of the third quarter, with his New England Patriots already up 28-7 over the Houston Texans. New England would win 42-14 on Monday night.
Brady wanted to make a point, no matter the score, and he fired up a spoiled home crowd with an emphatic fist pump, eliciting chants of "M-V-P."
BOX SCORE: Patriots 42, Texans 14
"I don't run too often, so I've got to show them that I can still do it a little bit," Brady said. "I was pretty fired up at that point. That was a big moment in the game."
And who is it that Brady is putting on notice?
"The opposing defenses that say I can't run and won't move out of the pocket," he said. "At least there's a little bit of a threat there. Not a big threat; I'm not like RGIII there or anything, but I can make a first down."
Soon after Brady earned a first down by a yard, taking a hit in the process, he was pulled for backup Ryan Mallett. No point in keeping the 35-year-old Brady on the field during a blowout, even if the opposing Texans brought a league-best 11-1 record into the game.
From the jump, those 11 wins didn't help the Texans at Gillette Stadium. The Patriots (10-3) scored on their first three possessions, including two touchdown passes to Hernandez, his first scores in almost two months. Brady wound up with 296 yards on 21 of 35 passing for four touchdowns with no interceptions.
The win marked the 10th season Brady has led the Patriots to at least 10 wins, and the scoring outburst puts New England on pace to finish eight points shy of the NFL record 589 they scored in 2007.
