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As the , , and garner all of the hype, the are quietly marching toward yet another AFC East crown, a first-round playoff bye, and at least one home playoff game come January. If that doesn't scare every other Super Bowl contender on the AFC's side of , they haven't been paying attention to the over the past two decades of Bill Belichick and reign. As the learned Sunday, Foxborough in the winter is just as treacherous as the land beyond On Sunday, the Patriots earned an important 24-10 win over the Vikings behind a dominant defensive effort that completely shut down , making him look like an ordinary quarterback instead of. The Patriots are now 9-3. They're in control of the AFC East. And they're only a game behind the Chiefs for the best record in the conference.The Patriots never trailed on Sunday. They didn't even need Brady to look like Brady. They rode their defense for the entirety of the game, relied on fullback around the end zone, turned to when they needed a flash, and let Cousins dump the ball off over and over again. Develin scored two touchdowns from in close, Gordon caught the game-winning touchdown in the third quarter, Brady spread the ball around, and the defense limited Cousins to 4. Joakim Noah Jersey 6 yards per pa s attempt and picked him off twice in the final five minutes.The Patriots jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, journeying 81 yards on eight plays on their first drive. It was Develin who got the scoring started with a run from in close. The Patriots Montrezl Harrell Jersey extended their lead to 10-0 with a field goal midway through the second quarter, which wrapped up a 15-play, 68-yard drive that burned over eight minutes of game clock. It wasn't until the final seconds of the second quarter that the Vikings -- after mi sed yet another field goal -- got on the board with an touchdown. They tied the game late the third quarter with a field goal after the Patriots mi sed out on a chance to extend their lead to six points with their own mi sed field goal. And then, just as the Vikings drew even, they fell into a hole they weren't able to climb out of. The Patriots responded immediately to the deadlock, finally opening up their pa sing game with a four-play, 75-yard scoring drive, during which Gordon finally got involved with two catches for 48 yards and a go-ahead touchdown. They forced a punt. On their next series, they went 50 yards on six plays. Develin breached the end zone again to give the Patriots a two-score advantage. In the fourth quarter, the Patriots maintained their lead by picking off Cousins twice as the Minnesota quarterback was unable to keep pace against what has been a vulnerable defense. Cousins stinks it up Another big game, another disappointing performance by Cousins. One of the knocks against Cousins to this point in his career has been his inability to play up to his potential in high-leverage games. Perhaps it's just a silly narrative. Maybe it's unfair to Cousins, who spent the past six years of his career on mediocre-at-best teams. Ignoring the larger implications of this lo s and how it feeds Luke Kennard Jersey into the larger story of Cousins' career, it's completely fair to criticize his performance in this game alone. Spending nearly the entirety of his evening dumping the ball off underneath, Cousins completed 32 of his 44 pa s attempts for 201 yards, but he averaged only 4.6 yards per attempt, threw only one touchdown compared to two picks, and finished with a 70.3 pa ser rating that might actually flatter his performance.Speaking of He mi sed Thielen deep for a big gain at the beginning of the third quarter, overthrowing him by a hair. On a crucial fourth-and-11 with just over six minutes remaining in the game, when the Vikings trailed by two touchdowns, he targeted three yards past the line of scrimmage. Treadwell was promptly tackled seven yards shorts of the sticks. In desperation mode, he got picked twice in the final five minutes, underthrowing in the end zone and later telegraphing a late throw to Thielen over the middle.WHEN: Fourth quarter. WHERE: In the end zone. WHO: THE CLOSER. | | New England Patriots (@Patriots) Jonathan Jones with the interception! Thanks for coming ! Casey Baker (@CaseyBake16) There's tough to find any positives in his performance. Two weeks ago, Daniel Oturu Jersey against the , but at least that performance can be excused due to the dominant state of the Bears defense. Last week, against the in a game the Vikings needed to win. But Cousins struggled Sunday against a defense that hasn't been all too good. Entering the game, the Patriots' defense ranked , 22nd in yards allowed per game, and 12th in points allowed per game. They shouldn't be holding most teams -- much le s the Vikings with Thielen, , Dalvin Cook, and so on -- to one touchdown. But the Vikings managed only 10 points. They really only looked good on their touchdown series that came at the end of the first half, when they were forced to drive the ball downfield. helped set up the scoring drive with a -like reception. Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) Who else but Adam Thielen!?Vikings get within 3 points of the Pats to end the half! FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) They scored three more points the rest of the way. As a result of their offensive ineptitude, they failed to gain a game on the Bears, who lost to the but remained a game-and-a-half up on the Vikings in the NFC North. Patriots spread the ball around Brady's performance on Sunday won't earn him MVP consideration even though he's the most famous quarterback on the planet who plays for a 9-3 team that's been to two straight Super Bowls. Like Cousins, he spent much of his evening dumping the ball off underneath. Unlike Cousins, the approach did at least lead to some - Los Angeles Clippers Hoodie - though not too much -- succe s. Brady finished 24 of 32 for 311 yards (9.7 YPA), one touchdown, one pick, and a 102.5 pa ser rating. It's worth noting that 42 of his yards resulted from a meaningle s check down to at the end of the first half. Brady also threw an uncharacteristically bad interception in the fourth quarter when the Vikings were all but dead. . with the hit...and with the pick!!! Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) Brady's underwhelming stat line shouldn't be pinned entirely on him. It was clear that the approach was to use an endle s number of screens and underneath throws to a variety of targets. Nine different players caught at least one pa s. Out of the wide receivers, Gordon led the way with three catches for 58 yards.Meanwhile, the Patriots ran the ball 39 times for 160 yards and two touchdowns. spearheaded the effort with 17 carries for 63 yards while and James White combined for 46 yards on 13 carries. Develin, out of all of the Patriots' ball carriers, scored twice.At this point, it's all Develin does when he touches the ball. 3 carries, 3 touchdowns this season. RT to send this guy back to the Pro Bowl. | New England Patriots (@Patriots) Against a good Vikings defense, the Patriots spread the bal