Quarterback and coach show no signs of slowing down as New England soars

FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts－The Patriots have made a habit of dominating the final month of the NFL season ever since Bill Belichick and Tom Brady arrived in New England.

Now they're hoping Sunday's 24-10 victory over the Minnesota Vikings heralds the start of another December to remember.

Brady passed for 311 yards and reached the 1,000-yard milestone in career rushing and Belichick earned his 250th victory, including playoffs, as Patriots coach in yet another masterful performance.

Including his 37 regular-season and postseason victories with the Cleveland Browns, Belichick has 287 wins overall.

Brady completed 24 of 32 passes and has 579 touchdown passes, including the playoffs, tying him with Peyton Manning for the most in NFL history.

He also has 508 regular-season TD passes, which ties him with Brett Favre for third on the career list. Manning is first with 539 and Drew Brees is next with 518.

James Develin added a career-high two touchdown runs as New England finished with 471 yards.

"Seven guys running, eight guys catching－that makes it hard for them to defend us," Brady said. "Hopefully we can keep it going."

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

Belichick improved to 65-13 in December games while Brady is 59-11. Both marks are NFL records.

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

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

The defeat prevented the Vikings from gaining ground on the NFC North-leading Chicago Bears, who lost 30-27 in overtime to the New York Giants.

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) against which he has a perfect regular-season record.

With New England leading 10-7 in the third quarter, Stephen Gostkowski missed a 48-yard field goal attempt wide right, snapping a streak of 35 straight 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 TD strike to Josh Gordon that put New England 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 two-yard TD run by Develin that made it 24-10.

Thousand-yard star

Brady hit the 1,000-yard rushing milestone on a five-yard scramble in the first quarter.

He slid to a stop, popped to his knee and signaled for a first down.

"I'm not trying to go backward," he said. "I don't want us to go backwards anymore."

Never considered much of a mobile quarterback, it took Brady 19 years and 265 games to reach the 1,000-yard milestone－the most by a player since the merger with the American Football League in 1967.

At 41, he is also the oldest player to reach 1,000 career rushing yards since 1970.

He has averaged 1.7 yards per carry and 3.8 yards per game, with his most "prolific" season in 2002, when he ran for a total of 110 yards.

AP