Belichick Gets 300th Career Win, As Patriots Roll Past Browns, 27-13
FOXBORO (CBS) -- The victory train rolls on for the undefeated New England Patriots.
Backed by yet another defensive touchdown and a strong day from Tom Brady, the Patriots rolled to a 27-13 victory over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday afternoon in a rain-soaked Gillette Stadium.
The Patriots improved to 8-0, while the Browns -- who entered the season with Super Bowl aspirations -- fell to a dreary 2-5.
With the win, head coach Bill Belichick earned his 300th career victory, regular season and playoffs combined. Only Don Shula (347) and George Halas (324) have hit the 300 mark in NFL history.
"It's a great privilege to coach this team and to coach the guys that I've coached throughout my career. Fortunately, I didn't play in any of those games. That's a good thing for us, but I've had a lot of good players, a lot of great players and they're the ones that win the games," Belichick said after the win. "I've had a lot of great assistant coaches on my staff through the wins at Cleveland and certainly here. I was a part of those but, honestly, players win games in this league and I've been fortunate that I've coached a lot of great ones."
Tom Brady completed 20 of his 36 passes for 259 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Sony Michel ran for 74 yards on 21 carries, while Julian Edelman caught two touchdown passes.
Mohamed Sanu had two receptions for 23 yards in his Patriots debut, including a 4-yard reception to convert a fourth-and-4.
Brady's, who's been on the Patriots for 263 of those Belichick wins, spoke about his head coach after the game.
"It's pretty amazing. Pretty amazing," Brady said. "Three hundred wins is pretty spectacular. He's the best coach of all time and it's a privilege to play for him for as many years as I have. He's taught me so much on and off the field, just been a great mentor for me. Being here 20 years ago – it was his first year, it was my first year. It's been a great journey. Just proud of him, everything he's accomplished. Amazing to think that he coached for another place and they didn't think he was good enough, and then he comes here and does a great job. It's a great celebration for him and certainly hard-earned, well-deserved. And the only thing better than 300 is 301. So, we'll be back at it this week.
Brady also added: "He's had a big influence on me. He's taught me about pro football. He's taught me about leadership and consistency, dependability. All the things I think he really preaches to us as a player is what we get out of him as a coach. His consistency, dependability, trust, confidence – all those things over a long period of time really add up. So, he's just a very stable figure when he gets up and speaks to us. It's about trying to win games, and I think we all appreciate that."
Baker Mayfield went 20-for-31 for 194 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He was sacked five times.
The Patriots took a 3-0 lead midway through the first quarter, on a drive that featured a 33-yard pass to Phillip Dorsett to convert a third-and-6 and a 10-yard connection with Julian Edelman to convert a fourth-and-7. The drive stalled out with two unsuccessful plays on the goal line, setting up a 20-yard Mike Nugent field goal.
They stretched it to 10-0 with -- what else? -- a defensive touchdown. Nick Chubb had the ball kicked out of his hands by his teammate's foot, and Dont'a Hightower scooped the free football and ran it 26 yards for a touchdown.
On the Browns' next possession (following a Jake Bailey kick out of bounds) Chubb nearly broke a 60-yard touchdown run. But Jonathan Jones chased the running back down from behind and punched the ball loose. Devin McCourty secured the fumble recovery inside the Patriots' 5-yard line.
Though the Patriots didn't score on the resulting drive, Mayfield did throw an interception on a shovel pass to Lawrence Guy on the first play of that next drive. Brady then hit Edelman for an 8-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown to make the score 17-0.
The Browns prevented the Patriots from adding to that lead when they blocked a Nugent chip shot with 2:19 left in the first half. Denzel Ward got around Guy to block the 29-yard attempt. That kept the score at 17-7 in favor of the Patriots at halftime.
The Browns cut that lead to 17-10 with a short Austin Seibert field goal to end the opening drive of the second half. The Browns drove to the New England 11-yard line on that drive, but Jamie Collins came up with a sack on third down to force the field goal attempt.
The Patriots responded, though, with an 84-yard touchdown drive, aided by a 59-yard catch-and-run by James White. The drive ended with Brady escaping pressure from Myles Garrett before stepping up and out of the pocket and delivering a strike through traffic to Edelman, who scored his second touchdown of the game to make the score 24-10.
Nugent missed a 34-yard field goal late in the game, while Seibert drilled a 47-yarder with 2:33 left to make the score 27-13 in favor of the Patriots.
The Patriots will next play on Sunday Night Football in Baltimore next weekend, before hitting their bye week.
