Brady, Patriots Handle Washington National Football League, 27-10

Todd Gurley’s streak with 125-plus yards rushing ended at four straight games. They also had two turnovers in the half, after entering the game with three total for the season.

The Giants defense has been horrid but with the return of Jason Pierre-Paul, gives them a pass rusher that can wreak havoc in the backfield.

“Whenever my number is called, I just have to go out there and perform, do what I have to do”, Blount (29 carries, 129 yards) said. Patriots defensive backs talked all week about having to deal with him, but there wasn’t much to deal with at all. “It’s an example of guys believing into what Coach (Bill) Belichick and Coach (Matt) Patricia are preaching”. And it shows on the film.

For Fleming, who had never played left tackle in a game before, it was satisfying to be able to take on multiple assignments.

The Rams certainly seem to have gotten more attention, possibly because their living, breathing highlight reel of a running back, Todd Gurley, does something nearly each week that causes jaws to drop.

“It’s a great thing to be in the hunt and be relevant”, Coughlin said Monday. “Collectively as a unit, we want to continue to get better as these weeks roll on”.

Branch said the run defense has been coming on for a while. We know he is going to get his, but there is little standing in the way of our offense getting back on track. “But the last four games we’ve been doing pretty well”. “All of our guys have good natural hands and have made a few really tough catches this year, so I don’t see this as a trend or a pattern, but more of an anomaly”, he said. But it was Brady’s first at-fault pick of the season, and only his second overall through eight games.

The Patriots (8-0) still rolled to their 11th consecutive win dating back to last year’s playoffs. The others were Green Bay in 2011 (13-0), Denver in 1998 (13-0) and San Francisco in 1990 (10-0).

Edelman caught an 8-yard TD pass on New England’s opening drive, then the Patriots pulled off a surprise onside kick. It was the Patriots’ first successful onside kick since December 8, 2013.

But otherwise Cousins did what he could to keep the Redskins in the game and found open men but the Redskins receivers didn’t do all they could in terms of securing the ball and making plays. Brady is the leader and rightful MVP candidate, but Edelman deserves recognition as an elite player on the league’s elite team. “And they played really hard, so I’m proud of them”. Brady gave a lot of credit to Bolden. “I love Brandon and everything he brings to our team”.

“Bill (Belichick) prepares everybody for any and everything”, he said.

“Helping out at my position, it doesn’t happen very often”, the smiling 6-foot-6-inch, 350-pound Branch said of the forced fumble. Left tackle Sebastian Vollmer (head) and running back Dion Lewis (knee) left with injuries.

“It a little bit exciting”, he said. And we have to let it go – we have to learn from it. He is preparing his players to move anywhere along the line and as scary as the situation is right now, he’s been outstanding at allaying any fears about the offensive line. Defensive tackle Alan Branch, heeding the advice of linebacker Jonathan Freeny, prepped to split the center and right guard. “We executed well, but definitely had periods of time we can execute better as an offense”. We’re not at that point where we can drop passes and miss tackles and lose leverage in coverage and still overcome challenges.