NFL FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL --- --- --- --- ----- ARIZONA 0 0 0 0 0 NEW ENGLAND 7 13 8 3 31 FINAL
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER: NWE - TD, CURTIS MARTIN 13 YD PASS FROM DREW BLEDSOE (ADAM VINATIERI KICK), 12:35. Drive: 12 plays, 74 yards in 6:43. Key plays: Bledsoe 19-yard pass to Jefferson to Arizona 29; Bledsoe 16-yard pass to Glenn to Arizona 13. NEW ENGLAND 7-0 2ND QUARTER: NWE - TD, CURTIS MARTIN 1 YD RUN (ADAM VINATIERI KICK), 5:31. Drive: 7 plays, 47 yards in 2:58. Key plays: Reynolds interception at Arizona 47; Bledsoe 23-yard pass to Glenn to Arizona 24; Meggett 9-yard run on 3rd-and-6 to Arizona 2. NEW ENGLAND 14-0 NWE - TD, BEN COATES 2 YD PASS FROM DREW BLEDSOE (PAT FAILED), 14:40. Drive: 14 plays, 49 yards in 6:10. Key plays: Bledsoe 12-yard pass to Coates to Arizona 30; Bledsoe 10-yard pass to Graham on 4th-and-1 to Arizona 19; Bledsoe 2-yard run on 4th-and-1 to Arizona 8. NEW ENGLAND 20-0 3RD QUARTER: NWE - TD, CURTIS MARTIN 7 YD PASS FROM DREW BLEDSOE (DREW BLEDSOE PASS TO CURTIS MARTIN FOR TWO-POINT CONVERSION), 5:52. Drive: 7 plays, 45 yards in 3:20. Key plays: Feagles 17-yard punt to Arizona 45; Bledsoe 13-yard pass to Coates on 3rd-and-10 to Arizona 21; Glenn 14-yard run to Arizona 7. NEW ENGLAND 28-0 4TH QUARTER: NWE - FG, ADAM VINATIERI 31 YD, 14:24. Drive: 10 plays, 37 yards in 5:52. Key plays: Jones 37-yard return of Graham fumble to midfield; Greer 8-yard run on 2nd-and-7 to Arizona 39. NEW ENGLAND 31-0
TEAM STATISTICS
ARI NWE -------- -------- FIRST DOWNS 9 26 Rushing 3 10 Passing 5 16 Penalty 1 0 3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 3-11 5-16 4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-0 3-4 TOTAL NET YARDS 170 384 Total plays 48 82 Average gain 3.5 4.7 NET YARDS RUSHING 46 163 Rushes 16 43 Average per rush 2.9 3.8 NET YARDS PASSING 124 221 Completed-attempted 13-31 22-37 Yards per pass 3.9 5.7 Sacked-yards lost 1-9 2-5 Had intercepted 3 0 PUNTS-AVERAGE 7-42.9 5-44.0 RETURN YARDAGE 111 113 Punts-returns 2-27 5-87 Kickoffs-returns 5-84 1-19 Interceptions-returns 0-0 3-7 PENALTIES-YARDS 5-45 6-45 FUMBLES-LOST 1-1 0-0 TIME OF POSSESSION 39:21 20:39
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: New England (Adam Vinatieri 48).
Arizona rushing: Larry Centers 6-31, Leeland Mcelroy 8-11, Kent Graham 1-2, Cedric Smith 1-2.
New England rushing: Curtis Martin 27-92, Mario Grier 5-28, David Meggett 7-26, Terry Glenn 1-14, Drew Bledsoe 1-2, Sam Gash 1-1, Scott Zolak 1-0.
Arizona passing: Boomer Esiason 4-12 for 22 yards, 2 INT, 0 TD, Kent Graham 9-19 for 111 yards, 1 INT, 0 TD.
New England passing: Drew Bledsoe 21-35 for 221 yards, 0 INT, 3 TD, Scott Zolak 1-1 for 5 yards, 0 INT, 0 TD, David Meggett 0-1 for 0 yards, 0 INT, 0 TD.
Arizona receiving: Larry Centers 5-56, Pat Carter 3-30, Anthony Edwards 2-33, Frank Sanders 2-10, Rob Moore 1-4.
New England receiving: Ben Coates 6-61, Terry Glenn 5-66, Curtis Martin 5-33, Sam Gash 3-32, Shawn Jefferson 1-19, Hason Graham 1-10, Dietrich Jells 1-5.
Arizona tackles-assists-sacks (unofficial): Matt Darby 10-5-0, Ronnie Bradford 8-6-0, Terry Hoage 6-5-0, Eric Hill 7-3-0, Seth Joyner 5-2-1, Michael Bankston 5-1-0, Jamir Miller 4-2-0, Eric England 3-3-0, Aeneas Williams 3-3-0, Eric Swann 2-3-0, Terry Irving 3-1-0, Simeon Rice 2-2-1, Bernard Wilson 2-2-0, Kwamie Lassiter 1-1-0, Tommy Bennett 1-0-0, Devon Mcdonald 1-0-0, Jerry Drake 0-1-0, Ronald Mckinnon 0-1-0.
New England tackles-assists-sacks (unofficial): Chris Slade 7-2-1, Ted Johnson 3-2-0, Lawyer Milloy 2-3-0, Larry Whigham 1-4-0, Willie Clay 3-0-0, Todd Collins 2-1-0, Ty Law 2-1-0, Willie Mcginest 1-2-0, Terry Ray 1-2-0, Monty Brown 2-0-0, Ferric Collons 2-0-0, Mike Jones 2-0-0, Jimmy Hitchcock 1-0-0, Chris Sullivan 1-0-0, Tedy Bruschi 0-1-0, Ricky Reynolds 0-1-0, Mark Wheeler 0-1-0.
Interceptions: New England (Willie Clay 1 for 0 yards, Todd Collins 1 for 7 yards, Ricky Reynolds 1 for 0 yards).
Fumbles lost: Arizona (Kent Graham).
Opponent's fumbles recovered: New England (Mike Jones).
Officials: Referee-Walt Coleman, Umpire-Rex Stuart, Head linesman-Mark Baltz, Line judge-Mark Steinkerchner, Back judge-Dick Creed, Side judge-Neely Dunn, Field judge-Phil Luckett.
A: 59,118; No shows: 1,174; T: 3:52.
GAME RECAPDrew Bledsoe passed for three touchdowns -- two to Curtis Martin, who ran for another, as the New England Patriots posted their first shutout in nearly three years with a 31-0 domination of the winless Arizona Cardinals.
New England (1-2) recorded its first shutout since a 38-0 blanking of the Indianapolis Colts on December 26th, 1993. The Patriots defeated an NFC team for the first time since the final regular-season game of the 1994 season, a 13-3 victory over the Chicago Bears on December 24th.
Bledsoe opened the scoring in the first quarter, hitting Martin with a 13-yard scoring strike. He hooked up with Martin on a seven-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter, and also found Martin for the two-point converstion, giving the Patriots a 28-0 lead.
"We had a couple of big plays today, the thing that it does now is teams have to practice against that stuff," Bledsoe said. "They know we've got it in the arsenal. We've been saying all along we've got the talent to play and be very competitive in this league. We know we have talent but when you go 0-2, you start to wonder what's going on. I think it was important for us to come out and demonstrate the talent we have is not an illusion. We can come out and play good football."
Bledsoe completed 21-of-35 passes for 221 yards and three touchdowns and no interceptions for the second straight game. Martin carried 27 times for 92 yards and tied a team record with three touchdowns.
"I like to run the ball but I also like to catch the ball, it doesn't matter to me," Martin said. "I guess I'd like to run the ball but whatever the coaches think is more beneficial for the team that's what I'll do. I would love to execute and play the way we did today all year."
The Patriots had 384 total yards and held the Cardinals to 170, including only 46 on the ground.
"When Drew got hit, I knew it fired him up but it really fired me up too," New England linebacker Willie McGinest said. "When you see your quarterback going after the first down like that, you know the effort is there. We didn't call a shutout, we just played hard. No matter what the score is, that's a good team over there, they've got lots of good players. It's going to be hard for any team to come into Foxboro and we're going to make it hard."
Arizona quarterback Boomer Esiason completed just 4-of-12 passes for 22 yards and was intercepted twice before he was pulled in favor of Kent Graham with 8:59 left in the third quarter. Graham was 9-of-19 for 111 yards and one interception.
"Nobody's more disappointed, more disillusioned than I am," Esiason said. "When you're lackluster in effort and intensity, it all boils down to who's the guy behind center. It's hard to believe that three weeks into the season we're talking about my confidence but I'm just not getting it done."
The Cardinals have lost their first three games of the season -- all to AFC East opponents -- getting outscored 89-23.
"There's nobody that escapes the blame when you play the way we did today," Cardinals coach Vince Tobin said. "It's hard to find anything positive the way we've played the last two weeks. Whether we're making progress or not, we're not showing it on the field and when Sunday comes around to play the games. A game takes on a personality of its own ... when you have a chance to stop a team and you don't and they get a touchdown and that affects the next play. The offense affects everything."
Bledose directed a 12-play, 74 yard drive, covering nearly seven minutes, culminating with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Martin with 2:25 left in the opening quarter, giving the Patriots a 7-0 lead.
Ricky Reynolds returned an inteception to the Arizona 47, starting New England' second scoring drive of the game. A 23-yard pass from Blesoe to rookie Terry Glenn and a nine-yard run by Dave Meggett on 3rd-and-6 set up Martin's one-yard plunge 5:31 into the second quarter for a 14-0 lead.
Blesoe connected with Ben Coates on a two-yard touchdown pass with 20 seconds to play in the first half as New England extended its lead to 20-0. Coates caught a pass for the 52nd consecutive game.
Adam Vinatieri's 31-yard field goal with 36 seconds remaining completed the scoring.
Arizona leads the season series, 6-3, but has dropped the last two meetings.