FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The only thing more obvious than the yards and touchdowns that running back Jonas Gray recorded Sunday night in the New England Patriots’ 42-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts were the witty headlines writers, editors and the Twitterverse came up with for the youngster’s breakout effort.
Thanks to the literary phenomenon “Fifty Shades of Grey,” Gray was an instant play-on-words star.
–199 Shades of Gray. An allusion to the young back’s rushing yards.
–38 Shades of Gray. A link to his carries.
–Then there were the more tradition puns of Gray Matters or Going Gray or A Touch of Gray.
The former Notre Dame runner, who was undrafted in 2012, began this season on the practice squad.
Whether he can maintain any form of ground success remains a question. But there’s no question that on a night Tom Brady threw a pair of ugly first-half interceptions on the road, Gray’s 199 yards and four touchdowns paced the Patriots (8-2) to a key victory that put the team in the driver’s seat for the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
Not bad for a guy who never had an NFL carry until Week 7 against the New York Jets and, against the Colts’ undersized front, more than doubled his career production.
Gray notched his first touchdown and set a franchise rushing touchdown record, becoming the first player since 1921 to have four touchdowns in a game without previously notching a score.
“Sweet feeling, man,” Gray said. “Just honestly blessed.”
Brady certainly felt blessed, handing off and watching someone else key the output as New England topped 40 points for the third straight game.
“I think there are games that you go in and we’re not sure how good we’re going to run it. But when it’s going well, you want to keep giving it to him,” Brady said. “They were creating holes, and Jonas Gray was finding yards, whether it was cutting back or staying with his blocks. He just had great vision. He ran for almost 200 yards, so it was a pretty sweet night for a running back.”
But it was far from a one-man show. After breaking down the film, coach Bill Belichick raved about the group effort to put up a season-best 244 yards on the ground.
“We got overall real good effort in the running game from everybody really: the tight ends, the fullback, the offensive line,” Belichick said. “I thought Jonas read the blocks well and got good yardage on the plays, but there was certainly a lot of good blocking in front of him. We got some good holes to run through.
“Tom did a good job as well of getting us into the best play a couple times or getting us out of a bad play in a couple situations as well. Really, it was a good team effort from the players and all the guys were part of it. I wouldn’t put really too many ahead of anybody else. It was all a good part of it. I thought the offensive coaching staff had a great plan and scheme.”
It was a different script and a different name in the starring role, but the result was the same for New England: An impressive win to extend the Patriots’ margin of error in the AFC on a day when Denver was upset by the Rams.
It was a marquee win away from Foxborough for a team that has been less than dominant on the road in recent years.
It was a run-first victory for a team that’s on another run toward the postseason.
And it was a breakout day for a young running back named Gray, bringing forth plenty of witty headlines across the Internet as well as plenty more things for opposing defenses to think about as they prepare for a Patriots team that’s putting together another late-season surge under Belichick.
NOTES: DE Chandler Jones, the Patriots’ sack leader with 4.5, was inactive due to a hip injury. Zach Moore started in his place. Jones hasn’t played since Oct. 16. … Rob Gronkowski scored a touchdown for a third consecutive game, grabbing a game-sealing, 26-yard pass from Brady in the fourth quarter. Gronkowski finished the night with four receptions for 71 yards.