Patriots knock upstart Colts down a peg with 59-24 rout

• Tom Brady threw for 331 yards and three TDs, including two to Rob Gronkowski
• The Patriots scored three non-offensive TDs: a punt return and two INT returns
• New England tied a franchise record for points scored in a game
• Colts rookie QB Andrew Luck threw for 334 yards, two TDs and three INTs

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Andrew Luck was lying face down on the New England Patriots' sideline, having just whiffed on a tackle attempt as the Pats' Alfonzo Dennard went 87 yards for a touchdown after picking off Luck's pass.

Members of the Patriots' extra-point team stepped around Luck on their way to lining up for the sixth such kick of the day in their 59-24 beatdown of the rookie No. 1 pick and the upstart Indianapolis Colts.

Finally, Luck picked himself up, trudged back to his own sideline, angrily ripped off his chin strap and slammed his helmet into the ground.

It was the worst moment of one of the worst days of Luck's young career.

But it could've been worse.

"It was a lot better than the first day Peyton Manning came up here," interim head coach Bruce Arians said, referring to Manning's three-interception performance in his first road game against the Patriots. "I was here that day."

Luck threw three interceptions of his own Sunday, and they were bad ones. He also fumbled in the third quarter, leading to the Patriots' fifth touchdown.

"I think they were the right reads. Just some high balls, a ball behind a guy," Luck said, the last part of that statement a reference to his throw behind Reggie Wayne that Dennard picked off. "(The Patriots) are good enough. They don't need those gifts, per se. But to their credit, they created those and we didn't. Such is the game."

Such is the game that there will be days like this, four-turnover performances with a legend playing near-perfect football on the other sideline.

While the rest of the Colts' offense stayed on the bench while the Pats were on offense, Luck stood and watched Tom Brady deliver passes into tight windows to Rob Gronkowski and hit Wes Welker and Julian Edelman in stride, allowing them to pick up plenty of yardage after the catch.

Brady (331 yards and three touchdowns) was pretty animated himself, though, in a celebratory way. After completing a pass to Gronkowski in the fourth quarter with the Colts' Antoine Bethea all over him, Brady looked in Bethea's direction and slammed his own helmet with both hands. He was some kind of fired up.

The Patriots were less fired up, however, after the game, when they learned Gronkowski suffered a broken left forearm and will miss at least four to six weeks.

Though Brady would never admit it, he surely relished the challenge of showing up the next hot, young quarterback in his house.

One day, Luck will be able to welcome such a challenge. But that's of little consolation to Luck and the Colts at this point because there's still work to be done.

"It's fundamentals. I mean, you can't throw an out (route) late," Arians said. "We talked about it and he was mad at himself. That's the beauty of him. He'll come off the field and tell you exactly what he's thinking and we don't hide anything between each other."

By that, Arians meant he was right there to talk to Luck as the youngster slammed his helmet down. It was a much different reaction than Luck had after his first pick-six of the day. That one came on a floater that went over Wayne's head and into the hands of new Pats cornerback Aqib Talib.

Luck had to alter his throwing motion to avoid a rusher to his right. That caused the ball to float.

"Just a plain bad throw," Luck said.

After that one, he was giving fist bumps on the sideline, patting other players' shoulder pads and clapping as he entered the huddle for his first snap after the bad throw. And credit Luck for his moxie because he completed four of his next five passes and then put the next two on the hands of his targets, only to see them dropped. The one incompletion that wasn't dropped was a ball he threw away, which was a terrific result because he made a great move to spin away from pressure and avoid a sack.

Luck's body language and confidence led to that kind of in-game rebound. Over the years, he'll learn to act that way more than he'll be face-first on the grass for 10 seconds or throwing down his helmet.

And that little in-game rebound after the first interception is part of the reason why Luck's teammates believe he'll come back strong after this game.

"Hopefully like a professional," Wayne said. "Hopefully, he'll be ready to play again sooner rather than later and bounce back. We all hope so."

The feelings behind the emotion Luck showed on the sideline after Dennard's interception were a good sign to Arians, as well as a few veterans.

"It lets you know he's a competitor. It's encouraging to see that," linebacker Robert Mathis said. "He wants to win, and you can take that and build on that. I have no problems with it. It's a lesson learned."

A lesson he must learn -- to handle those down moments and continue to battle back from them, even if his emotions did please some of his teammates.

"Just disappointment in myself," Luck said, "Letting the team down on a good drive that could've made a game out of it."

He added of the need to bounce back before Sunday's game against the Buffalo Bills, a team trying to erase the two-game deficit between them and Indy, "As a quarterback, you do assume a leadership position, but I don't think it'll be an issue at all. I don't think anybody on the team is going to press to make sure anybody else is focused and locked in. With great veteran leadership, I think we'll be focused."