RECAP: Patriots blow out Bears 51-23 at home

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Rejoice, Patriots fans: The Patriots are back in full force, and that's cause for optimism. The Patriots offense moved the ball up and down the field at will as they blew out the Chicago Bears at home. Tom Brady threw 5 touchdowns, 3 of which went to tight end Rob Gronkowski, and the Patriots never really looked like losing control, despite a late push from Chicago. Tom Brady was on point, throwing for 354 yards in addition to the 5 touchdowns, once again showing no signs of slowing down before giving way to Jimmy Garappolo late in the 4th quarter.

Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was 20-30 for 209 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus an interception and a lost fumble. That includes 2 touchdowns in the 2nd half when the game was all but over.

The real story of the game was the Patriots going on a scoring spree late in the 1st half, which effectively ended the Bears' hope of winning, scoring 3 touchdowns in the span of less than a minute in the last 2 minutes of the half.

Jonas Gray also had a nice afternoon, rushing for 80 yards on 16 carries on the afternoon and making his case to be the main man alongside Shane Vereen in the run game in Stevan Ridley's absence.

All in all, a good afternoon all around for the Patriots. On to the Broncos and Peyton Manning.

All stats from ESPN.com. Thoughts? Let me know on Twitter or leave a comment.