At the beginning of the season, nobody could have predicted Sunday’s matchup between the Indianpolis Colts and New England Patriots would have playoff indications on the line–mainly because 2012 was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Colts after winning just two games last season. Instead, both Indianapolis and New England entered Sunday with a 6-3 record, but this “hyped-up game” quickly turned into a blowout by the Patriots

New England improved to 7-3 on the year after a 59-24 win over Indianapolis on Sunday thanks to strong performances by Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski. While Brady completed 24 of 35 passes for 331 yards and three touchdowns, Gronkowski caught seven of those passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns.

The defense still has plenty of work if this team has any chance of representing the AFC in the Super Bowl, but Sunday was the perfect example of how dangerous this Patriots team can be with the amount of weapons they have on offense. Give the Colts credit for putting up a fight in the first quarter, but once the Patriots got things going on special teams in the second quarter when Julian Edelman returned a punt 68 yards for a touchdown and Aqib Talib picked off Andrew Luck for a 59-yard interception return.

Luck deserves all of the credit in the world for what he’s accomplished this season for Indianapolis, but it’s clear the Colts are still far from the level the Patriots are on–so it should be interesting to see how the next few weeks play out with playoffs right around the corner.