The New Eng-land Patriots made sure they can enjoy their transatlantic flight back to the United States after a victorious visit to London.
For the St. Louis Rams, the journey will seem a lot longer - and so will the road to making the playoffs.
The Patriots (5-3) enter their bye week with the best record in the AFC East after blowing out the Rams 45-7 at Wembley Stadium on Sunday and finally look to have recovered their ability to put opponents away emphatically after a couple of close losses and a narrow escape against the New York Jets last weekend.
"It's great to come on a trip like this, put everything into it," quarterback Tom Brady said. "We've got the bye week next week. It's a good feeling. I'm sure the guys will have fun tonight."
The Rams (3-5), however, have little reason to celebrate going into their bye week.
After a surprisingly good start to the season, the Rams have dropped two games in a row against high-powered offences, also losing to the Green Bay Packers last weekend.
"It's embarrassing the way we played tonight," Rams quarterback Sam Bradford said. "Just embarrassing."
After the Patriots gave up an early 50-yard scoring play, Brady responded by leading five straight touchdown drives as the NFL's top-ranked offence proved too much to handle for the young Rams defence.
New England had at least 350 yards of total offence for the 17th straight game, breaking an NFL record set by the Rams in 1999-2000, back when Kurt Warner was leading "The Greatest Show on Turf."
Brady led four straight touchdown drives for a commanding 28-7 lead by halftime, and then hit Brandon Lloyd for a nine-yard score to start the third quarter.
Brady passed for 304 yards with four touchdowns and tight end Rob Gronkowski caught eight passes for 146 yards and two scores. Lloyd also had two touchdown catches as the Patriots put themselves atop the AFC East heading into their off week.
It was the 50th career game with at least three touchdown passes for Brady - and also the 50th game with at least 300 yards.
The Rams struck first when Bradford hit Chris Givens with a 50-yard touchdown pass on the opening drive of the game - exactly the kind of statement the team hoped to make to rattle the favoured Patriots.
But St. Louis, which arrived in London last Tuesday, three days before the Patriots, to get better adjusted to the time difference, was the team that looked jetlagged the rest of the way.
"You can't ask for a better start to the game. First time we touched the ball we go down and score," Bradford said. "It just all fell apart from there."
After the Rams took the lead, Brady led a 78-yard drive to tie the score with a 19-yard pass to Lloyd. On their next drive, coach Bill Belichick opted to go for it on fourth down at the one-yard line, and Shane Vereen broke into the end zone.
New England became the first team to win two games in London, having beaten Tampa Bay here in 2009. As expected, the Patriots also had the majority of crowd support from the 84,004 fans at Wembley.
