Read More: Dan Orlovsky (QB – IND), Curtis Painter (QB – IND), Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots, Detroit Lions, Indianapolis Colts at New England Patriots, Dec 4, 2011 1:00 PM EST

The Indianapolis Colts have benched starting quarterback Curtis Painter in favor of back-up player Dan Orlovsky for this Sunday’s match-up against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium.

While it’s not exactly an upgrade, the hapless Colts are 0-11 and desperate times call for desperate measures.

On the plus side, Orlovsky has plenty of experience playing for a winless team, having started seven games for the 2008 Detroit Lions, who own the dubious distinction of finishing that season 0-16.

Yahoo! Sports compares the two:

In nine games this season, Painter has done nothing to show that he has earned a job in the NFL. He threw for 1,541 yards and six touchdowns in his nine games. Painter only completed 54.3% of his passes, threw nine interceptions, and took 16 sacks.

Orlovsky has played in 16 total games in his career and saw most his playing time with the Detroit Lions during the 2008 season. In 10 games in 2008 he had a 66.7% completion percentage and threw for eight touchdowns and eight interceptions.

Colts fans have seen Orlovsky on three separate occasions this year but his contributions were nothing to celebrate. There’s no better time or place to get out of the doghouse than with a career-defining performance against one of the best teams in the division.

Unlikely, but you know the old saying about “any given Sunday.”

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The training camp quote that came to mind watching the Philadelphia Eagles getting schooled 38-21 by the New England Patriots Sunday wasn’t Vince Young’s now-laughable “Dream Team” remark from July  — how far away those days of optimism and Super Bowl talk now seem.

No, the comment that came to mind dates back a few years, to 2003, when Eagles owner Jeff Lurie called his team the “gold standard” for NFL teams, “the model of what NFL franchises want to be.”

Sunday offered a team that looked close to that standard playing at Lincoln Financial Field — but it certainly wasn’t the inept, quarreling and dispirited Eagles. The Patriots come as close as any NFL team to “the gold standard” of what consistent success looks like.

Since 2001, New England has won eight division championships, four AFC crowns and three Super Bowls (and were only a catch of the century from the New York Giants’ David Tyree from a fourth). The Eagles’ numbers are six, one and zero and, of course, they lost the Super Bowl XXXIX to New England.

Since 2002, the Patriots are 71-15 at home; the Eagles, 53-33. New England is 51-15 against divisional foes since 2001; Philadelphia, 44-26.

Want to compare owners’ tenures? Since 1994, Bob Kraft’s Patriots are 205-104; since 1995, Lurie’s Birds are 158-118-2.

Under Kraft’s ownership the Pats lead the NFL in Super Bowl wins, conference championships, overall winning percentage, playoff wins and playoff winning percentage and are second in playoff seasons.

And it’s worth noting that Kraft has emerged as a major player in the NFL boardroom and one of the most powerful and respected owners — he played a large role in settling the lockout that threatened the 2011 season — whereas Lurie is rarely mentioned in such contexts. (It should be noted that Lurie’s ‘Go Green’ environmental initiative is progressive, important and highly thought of by experts.)

Pretty obvious who’s the “gold standard” and “model” for the rest of the league to emulate, isn’t it? On the field, the gap between the Patriots and Eagles appeared ever-larger Sunday.

It’s not merely talent — though the Patriots’ aggressive and effective linebacker corps stood in strong contrast to the Eagles’ overmatched and ineffective unit — but what’s done with the talent. Philadelphia came out with an effective game plan to establish a 10-0 lead.

New England appeared to be in trouble, training on the road in front of a pumped-up crowd baying for Patriot blood. But then Bill Belichick fixed the problems.

On offense, Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady exploited some gaps in the Eagles’ pass rush, a rush that initially enjoyed considerable success against Brady. By moving Brady up in the pocket, and by using a no-huddle offense, New England gained a extra second or two for Brady to throw, resulting in 361 yards of passing and almost all of it downfield — the Patriots did not complete a pass to a running back all game.

Eagles fans are still waiting for the counter-adjustments from defensive coordinator Juan Castillo and defensive line coach Jim Washburn, though the latter may have been too busy feuding with offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg to bother.

On defense, the Patriots got torched for two long passes early that set up scores. The next time Vince Young went deep he was intercepted and after that the Birds’ long-passing game was pretty much dormant.

“I think the Eagles offense at first had a lot of quick throws and they were working,” New England cornerback Kyle Arrington said. “I think we needed to press them more and it worked. We felt that we needed to mix the coverages up more and make the Eagles earn it.”

Patriot linebacker Jerod Mayo tipped his cap to his coaches.

“I think we started a little slow on defense in the beginning of the game and then we just had to settle down,” he said. “The sideline made some great adjustments and it really paid off for us. It worked out for us and we played better. The defensive coaches made some big changes and it was really helped us and the defense went out and executed it.”

Young noticed.

“They wanted to be more (man-to-man),” he said. “They got out of the zone because they saw that we were attacking a little bit so they got out of that and went to a little more man.”

If Mornhinweg and head coach Andy Reid had a response, it was drowned out by the sounds of the scoreboard in the midst of ringing up a 38-3 New England run.
“Gold standard”, anyone?

“I still think we’re the better team,” Eagles’ defensive end Trent Cole said. “I still think we should have won that game.”

Back in the real world, there was little doubt that a “gold standard” was on display Sunday — and it didn’t wear green and white. Nor, based on current evidence, will it, for an awfully long time — or as long as Bob Kraft’s Patriots are still around.

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The long connection came early in the second quarter of the Patriots’ 38-20 win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. Branch ran out of gas and was tackled at the Eagles 1-yard line, but BenJarvus Green-Ellis rushed for the touchdown on the next play. Suddenly, the Patriots had a 14-10 lead and never trailed again.

Branch finished with six catches for 125 yards, one of his best games of the season.

“Deion is a very instinctive receiver,” coach Bill Belichick said Monday. “He has a great sense of timing, of when the quarterback is ready to throw the ball, when he needs to be open, how to get open. Tom, from his position, kind of has that same sense of what the receiver would expect him to do and what he should do in certain situations and that’s almost always what Deion would do.”

The Patriots improved to 8-3, tied for the best record in the AFC. They should improve on that Sunday when the Indianapolis Colts (0-11) visit. New England has scored the most points in the AFC. Indianapolis has allowed the most in the NFL.

So the Patriots, who have dominated their last three opponents, figure to do that again.

Belichick, though, likely will emphasize the strengths of the Colts, not the season-long absence of Peyton Manning.

“Schematically, (the Colts) look pretty much the same as they usually do,” he said. “Obviously, a couple of changes in personnel, but a team we always have trouble with.”

Eight of the Colts losses have been by more than seven points. The Patriots have the passing game to win by a lot more than that.

At the start of the season, Welker and Gronkowski were the big producers. In the first three games, Welker had 31 catches for 458 yards and Gronkowski scored five touchdowns. Branch started off well with 15 catches for 222 yards in the first two games but managed just a total of one in the next two.

Welker leads the NFL with 82 receptions and Gronkowski is tied for fifth with 60 and second with 11 touchdown catches. Even tight end Aaron Hernandez, with 47 receptions, is ahead of Branch’s 45.

But Branch can still help Brady turn a broken play into a big one.

On Sunday, Brady threw for the first time in his career to a wide-open Tiquan Underwood, who had just been signed. The receiver couldn’t latch onto the ball.

“It would have been a tough play,” Belichick said. “It could have been a little better executed all the way around. I thought he ran a good route. The ball was a little inside.”

On the very next play, Brady turned to a receiver he has plenty of experience with — Branch.

The quarterback scrambled to his left as Branch ran 13 yards down the left sideline and stopped at the first-down marker. That’s when Brady pointed. That was Branch’s cue to cut inside cornerback Brandon Hughes, who played more because cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha was limited by a knee injury.

Branch caught it at the Eagles’ 45 and nearly went all the way.

“It wasn’t a play that I made,” he said. “It was a play that (Brady) made with his feet.”

Brady isn’t known for his speed, but he’s good at escaping the rush.

“I think just about anybody who would evaluate Tom would say he’s probably got as good a pocket presence as just about any quarterback,” Belichick said. “He has very good pocket awareness and quickness in the pocket in a short space. I think that’s one of his big strengths.”

Brady and Branch were teammates for five years before the receiver was traded to the Seattle Seahawks before the 2006 season in a contract dispute. The Patriots reacquired him after their fourth game last year and he finished with 48 catches for 706 yards and five touchdowns in 11 games for them.

“You have two smart guys, both very instinctive players, that if something comes up that you haven’t done or talked about before, I’d say both of them probably would do the right thing,” Belichick said. “Or what you would want them to do if you haven’t told them what to do.

“Certainly, the experience and reps they’ve had together (in) practice, games and walkthroughs and talking about situations and talking about things that come up, I’m sure that’s all added to it. And of course, actually going out there and doing it on the field in live game situations, under pressure, adds to it as well.”

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Rob Maaddi
AP Pro Football Writer

The way Tom Brady was getting everyone involved, it’s a surprise no linemen or linebackers caught passes.

Brady threw for 361 yards and three touchdowns and the New England Patriots beat the Eagles 38-20 Sunday in a rematch of the 2005 Super Bowl.

Filling in for the injured Michael Vick for the second straight game, Vince Young couldn’t keep Philadelphia’s fading playoff hopes alive despite throwing for a career-best 400 yards passing.

The AFC East-leading Patriots (8-3) stayed in the hunt for the No. 1 seed in the conference behind a surgical-like effort from Brady.

The six-time Pro Bowl quarterback finished 24 of 34, Deion Branch had 125 yards receiving and Wes Welker caught eight passes for 115 yards and two TDs. Brady’s favorite targets, tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, also chipped in.

Gronkowski caught his 11th TD pass and Hernandez had six receptions. BenJarvus Green-Ellis scored twice on the ground.

“It was more balanced today,” Brady said. “That’s how it needs to be. You have to run it. You have to throw it to everybody. We did a good job maximizing all the guys.”

The Eagles (4-7) are all-but-mathematically eliminated from playoff contention in a season that began with Super Bowl expectations.

Angry fans made their feelings known about coach Andy Reid, chanting “Fire Andy!” in the second half.

“The way we played, I can understand,” Reid said.

The defending NFC East champions fell to 1-5 at home and have lost eight of nine at the Linc, including a playoff loss to Green Bay last January.
Down 10-0 early, the Patriots rallied behind Brady. New England scored on five of its next six possessions, excluding a kneel-down at the end of the first half.

“Overall we did a great job of staying composed on the sideline and making the right adjustments and doing pretty much what we game planned for,” Branch said.

Brady and coach Bill Belichick improved to 4-0 against Reid’s Eagles, including a 24-21 win for their third NFL title in four years after the 2004 season.

“Tom did a good job really pressing the issue,” Belichick said. “He felt he had them on the run with some of the mismatches. Tom kept pressing it, guys got open and Tom did what he does best, finding the open guys.”
Young led the Eagles to a 17-10 win against the New York Giants last week in his first start in nearly a year. He put up decent numbers against the worst-ranked defense in the league, but couldn’t overcome another inept performance by the Eagles’ defense.

Young finished 26 of 48. It was just his third career game over 300 yards.
“Andy’s a tremendous guy,” Young said, defending Reid. “I have the utmost respect for him. Fans don’t understand some of the situations that goes on during the game. You can’t put it all on Andy. We’re going to always continue to keep fighting hard, playing hard for him.”

Michael Vick broke two lower ribs in a loss to Arizona on Nov. 13. He got hurt on the second play of that game and stayed in, but hasn’t practiced the past two weeks. It’s uncertain whether Vick can play when Philadelphia visits Seattle on Thursday night.

After a fast start, the Eagles fizzled.

Brady engineered a 70-yard drive capped by Green-Ellis’ 4-yard TD run to cut it to 10-7. The Pats converted two third downs on the drive, including two by penalty.

Helped by a missed call, New England’s defense then forced a three-and-out. Young was sacked by Rob Ninkovich, who spun the quarterback down by pulling his facemask. But the referees didn’t see it, eliciting loud boos from the crowd when the replay was shown on the video screen.

One play after just-signed Tiquan Underwood dropped a wide-open pass, Brady connected with Branch for 63 yards to the Eagles 1 on a third-and-13. Green-Ellis scored on the next play to put the Patriots up 14-10.

Antwaun Molden intercepted Young’s deep pass intended for DeSean Jackson on Philadelphia’s next play and returned it 27 yards to the Eagles 34. But the Patriots couldn’t convert the turnover into points. Stephen Gostkowski missed a 39-yard field goal wide right.

No problem for Brady and Co.

The Eagles went three-and-out again, and the Patriots went to a no-huddle when they got the ball back.

Welker blew past the secondary and Brady hit his wide-open target in stride for a 41-yard TD pass to give New England a 21-10 lead.

“He said if he got a certain look he could get it,” Brady said. “Afterward he came to the sideline and said, ‘I told you! I told you!’ It’s nice when they work out the way you talk about.”

Jackson dropped what could’ve been a 4-yard TD pass and the Eagles settled for a 22-yard field goal to get within 21-13.

It was the second time in the first half that Jackson appeared to shy away from contact and dropped a pass across the middle.

Fans let him hear it with a chorus of boos. Jackson, a two-time Pro Bowl pick, is in the final year of his rookie contract and has been unhappy that he didn’t get a new deal. He dropped a deep pass that could’ve been a TD in the third quarter, and was benched in the fourth quarter.

The Patriots got the ball to start the second half and Brady led them into the end zone again, tossing a 9-yard TD pass to Welker for a 31-13 lead.
Brady threw a 24-yard TD pass to Rob Gronkowski to extend it to 38-13 in the fourth quarter. Notes: Patriots WR Chad Ochocinco sat out with a hamstring injury. … Gostkowski’s miss was his second from under 40 yards in 14 attempts. … McCoy has 11 TDs rushing, five shy of breaking the single-season team record held by Hall of Famer Steve Van Buren. … Young’s last 300-yard game was against Arizona on Nov. 29, 2009. He threw for 387 yards in Tennessee’s 20-17 win.