Sunday is the 11-year anniversary of historic Pats rout

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October 18, 2008; Foxboro, MA, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) warms up prior to a game against the Tennessee Titans at Gillette Stadium. The New England Patriots defeated the Tennessee Titans 59-0. Mandatory Credit: Stew Milne-USA TODAY Sports

October 18, 2008; Foxboro, MA, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) warms up prior to a game against the Tennessee Titans at Gillette Stadium. The New England Patriots defeated the Tennessee Titans 59-0. Mandatory Credit: Stew Milne-USA TODAY Sports

Many regular-season NFL games fade into obscurity almost as soon as they've finished. But 11 years ago Sunday, the Patriots played one of the most memorable games of the Tom Brady era -- and it wasn't just because of an October snowstorm that dumped several inches of heavy, wet snow in Foxboro.

Coming off an overtime loss to a Broncos team coached by Josh McDaniels, the Patriots were hoping to just come back home and get back in the win column. Instead, they did much more than that, embarrassing the Titans in one of the largest blowouts in NFL history.

The elements didn't faze Brady, who threw a career-high six touchdown passes -- including an NFL-record five in the second quarter alone -- as New England steamrolled Tennessee 59-0, a score that matched the largest NFL blowout since the merger and trailed only a 66-0 win by the Rochester Jeffersons in 1920 as the largest margin of victory in league history.

Randy Moss and Wes Welker both had a pair of touchdown receptions in the second quarter as Brady decimated the Titans defense, going 29-for-34 for 380 yards with six TD tosses and no interceptions -- a stat line that somehow didn't equate to a perfect quarterback rating. The performance is even more impressive when you consider Brady was taken out of the game early in the third quarter, preventing him from tying the NFL record of seven touchdown passes in a game (or potentially breaking it).

While the Patriots offense racked up a then-team-record 619 total yards of offense, the Titans couldn't do a thing. Vince Young and Kerry Collins finished the game with an astounding -7 passing yards, completing just two of 14 attempts.

When the carnage was all said and done, Bill Belichick summed up the drubbing perfectly: "You never go into a game thinking it's going to be like this," Belichick said. "It's just our day today."

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