Tom Brady threw three touchdown passes and ran for two more scores on Sunday as the New England Patriots crushed the Washington Redskins 52-7 in an easy tuneup for its battle of unbeatens at Indianapolis.
Linebacker Mike Vrabel was a force on both sides of the ball in the biggest rout in a season filled with them.
He caught a touchdown pass and forced three fumbles by quarterback Jason Campbell that led to 17 points.
The first half of the season is over. Bring on the Super Bowl champs.
The Patriots (8-0) and the Colts (7-0) both have perfect records going into next Sunday's game.
That's where New England lost last, more than nine months ago in the AFC championship game.
Washington (4-3) avoided a shutout on Campbell's 15-yard touchdown pass to Chris Cooley with three minutes left.
Colts 31, Panthers 7
At Charlotte, North Carolina, Peyton Manning threw for 254 yards and two touchdowns to break Johnny Unitas' team record for career scoring passes as the Colts dominated the second half against the Panthers (4-3).
Joseph Addai rushed for 100 yards and two touchdowns and caught a TD pass from Manning, who was outplayed early by 43-year-old Vinny Testaverde. But when Testaverde was lost at halftime with an ankle injury, the defense shut down David Carr the rest of the way as the Colts became the first team since the 1929-1931 Green Bay Packers to win their first seven games in three straight seasons.
Chargers 35, Texans 10
At San Diego, Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger flipped the coin, thanked the firefighters and yelled, ``Go, Chargers, go!'' Did they ever, helping bring a sense of normalcy to a region that's been ravaged by deadly wildfires.
Two days after the last evacuees left Qualcomm Stadium, the tailgaters and the NFL were back. The Chargers routed the Texans 35-10 behind Philip Rivers' three touchdown passes -- two went to All-Pro tight end Antonio Gates -- and a monster game by cornerback Antonio Cromartie.
In other games it was:
* Steelers 24, Bengals 13
* Lions 16, Bears 7
* Titans 13, Raiders 9
* Browns 27, Rams 20
* Eagles 23, Vikings 16
* Bills 13, Jets 3
* Jaguars 24, Bucs 23
* Saints 31, 49ers 10
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier