Brady leads Patriots to AFL showdown win over Bears

TOM BRADY threw for 269 yards and a touchdown, while Asante Samuel picked off three passes as the New England Patriots beat Chicago 17-13 in a showdown of American football division leaders on Sunday.

The Patriots overcame five turnovers by taking the ball from Chicago’s Rex Grossman four times, including a fumble and three interceptions, and amassing the most yards surrendered by the Bears all season.

“You can’t win like this. This is luck today,” Brady said.

Cedric Benson’s two-yard touchdown run pulled Chicago level 10-10 on the first play of the fourth quarter.

New England answered with an 11-play, 73-yard march orchestrated by Brady, who twice scampered for first downs to sustain the drive before flipping the deciding two-yard touchdown to Ben Watson with 8:22 remaining.

Robbie Gould’s 32-yard field goal pulled the Bears within four points with 3:31 to play. New England drove to the Chicago 22-yard line before Corey Dillon fumbled with 1:52 to play, but on the next play Samuel intercepted Grossman to end the last Bears threat.

“We’ll make the necessary corrections,” Bears coach Lovie Smith said. “We’re 9-2 right now with Rex leading our team. He had a couple bad passes. We still had an opportunity to win. We’re not going to put that (blame) on one guy.”

The Bears (9-2) still lead Minnesota by four games in the NFC North and have the best record in the National Conference, while the Patriots, winners in three of the past five Super Bowls, are 8-3 and lead the AFC East by two games.

“I could have had six,” treble intercepter Samuel said. “To do it against the best team in the NFC, of course this is big.”

Tennessee rookie Vince Young threw for two touchdowns and ran for another as the Titans rallied from a 21-point deficit in the final 10 minutes to beat the New York Giants 24-21. Two Adam Jones pick-offs set up scores that helped drop the Giants (6-5) a game behind Dallas in the NFC East.

Division leaders San Diego, Baltimore, Indianapolis and New Orleans were all winners on Sunday.

LaDainian Tomlinson ran 19 times for 109 yards and two touchdowns and threw a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to rally San Diego past Oakland 21-14 as the Chargers (9-2) won their fifth game in a row for a two-game AFC West lead.

Tomlinson threw a 19-yard touchdown with 9:46 to play and ran 10 yards for the deciding points 6:07 later for his 24th touchdown of the season, four shy of the NFL one-season record of 28 set last year by Seattle’s Shaun Alexander.

Baltimore’s defence sacked Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger nine times as the Ravens routed the reigning Super Bowl champions 27-0. The Ravens (9-2) stayed three games atop Cincinnati in the AFC North with their fifth win in a row.

“This was an incredible win for us,” Ravens coach Brian Billick said. “This is a special group of players that are making a name for themselves.”

Joseph Addai ran 24 times for 171 yards and four touchdowns, matching a club record for touchdown carries in a single game, to give Indianapolis (10-1) a 45-21 victory over visiting Philadelphia.

Drew Brees completed 21-of-30 passes for 349 yards and two touchdowns to lead New Orleans past Atlanta 31-13. The Saints (7-4) moved a game ahead of Carolina atop the NFC South after the Panthers lost 17-13 at Washington.

Atlanta’s Michael Vick ran 12 times for 166 yards but threw for only 84 yards and the Falcons (5-6) lost their fourth game in a row and Vick made an obscene gesture to a fan after the game.

“I would like to apologise for my inappropriate actions,” Vick said. “I was frustrated and upset at how the game was going for my team. I simply lost my cool in the heat of the moment.”

Jason Campbell threw a 66-yard touchdown pass to Chris Cooley with 4:26 to play to lift Washington past Carolina while Rian Lindell kicked a 42-yard field goal as time expired to give Buffalo a 27-24 victory over Jacksonville.

Marc Bulger threw a five-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Curtis with 29 seconds remaining and the St Louis Rams snapped a five-game losing streak with a 20-17 victory over San Francisco.

In other games, Cincinnati routed Cleveland 30-0, the New York Jets beat Houston 26-11 and Minnesota defeated Arizona 31-26.