Brady rolls, ties records as Pats win

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady passed for 311 yards and a touchdown, Bill Belichick earned his 250th victory, including playoffs, as Patriots coach and New England beat the Minnesota Vikings 24-10 on Sunday.

Brady completed 24 of 32 passes and now has 579 touchdown passes, including the playoffs, tying him with Peyton Manning for the most all time. He also has 508 regular-season TD passes, which ties him with Brett Favre on the career list. Manning is first with 539 and Drew Brees has 518.

James Develin added a career-high two touchdown runs.

The Patriots (9-3) have won 8 of 9 since starting the season 1-2.

The Patriots have clinched their 18th consecutive winning season. It is the second-longest streak in NFL history. The record is held by the Cowboys at 20 seasons from 1966-85.

Minnesota (6-5-1) has lost two of its past three.

The Vikings entered the game allowing the third-fewest rushing yards in the league (93.6 per game). But New England was able to spread them out, rushing for 160 yards.

Kirk Cousins kept Minnesota in the game early, before faltering down the stretch. He finished 32 of 44 for 201 yards and a touchdown but had two late interceptions.

Brady improved to 5-0 against Minnesota, one of five teams (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Tampa Bay) he has a perfect regular-season record against.

With New England leading 10-7 in the third quarter, Stephen Gostkowski missed a 48-yard field-goal attempt wide right at the 6:26 mark. It snapped a streak of 35 consecutive makes in the regular season of less than 50 yards, going back to October of last season.

The Vikings tied the game on the ensuing series with Dan Bailey’s 39-yard field goal.

But the Patriots bounced back, needing just four plays for Brady to cap a 75-yard drive with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Josh Gordon that put the Patriots back in front 17-10.

Following Minnesota’s punt, the Patriots picked up where they left off. This time they needed only six plays to set up a 2-yard TD run by Develin that made it 24-10.

Minnesota Coach Mike Zimmer pulled out his red challenge flag at just the right time late in the first half to help get his team on the scoreboard.

The Vikings successfully challenged the referee’s spot after an apparent first down completion to Rob Gronkowski. It left the Patriots with a third-and-1 on their 26.

Minnesota stopped the ensuing run by James White and New England was forced to punt.

Cousins went to work in the two-minute offense, opening Minnesota’s drive with completions of 24 and 23 yards to Stefon Diggs and Kyle Rudolph. He added another 10-yard completion to Diggs four plays later to set up a 5-yard touchdown pass to Adam Thielen that trimmed the Patriots’ lead to 10-7 at the half.

Brady reached another milestone during the game: 1,000 yards rushing in his career.