Tom Brady threw four touchdown passes, shattering Steelers safety Anthony Smith's guarantee of a victory, Randy Moss caught two of them and New England crushed Pittsburgh 34-13 on Sunday.
The lopsided victory against the NFL's stingiest defense followed a two-game struggle in which the Patriots (13-0) needed late comebacks to beat teams with losing records, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
They had a short week to prepare for the Steelers (9-4) after beating the Ravens on Monday night on a touchdown with 44 seconds left.
Still, the Patriots became the fifth team with a 13-0 record, joining the 1934 Chicago Bears, 1972 Miami Dolphins, 1998 Denver Broncos and 2005 Indianapolis Colts. They can become the first team since the 1972 Dolphins to finish a regular season undefeated.
They should be big favorites to win the next two, against the Jets and Dolphins, and take a 15-0 record into their season finale at the New York Giants.
Brady is four scoring passes shy of Peyton Manning's record of 49 set in 2004 and moved ahead of Dan Marino's 44 in 1986 into third place. Marino holds the second spot with 48.
Moss caught touchdown passes of 4 and 63 yards in a span of 1:59 midway through the first half and has 19 to move into second place for a season. Jerry Rice's record of 22 is in sight.
Brady also threw scoring passes of 56 yards to Jabar Gaffney and 2 yards to Wes Welker.
It was a beating like so many of those the Patriots handed out in their first 10 games, when their average victory margin was 25.4 points.
There may have been extra satisfaction because Smith was burned on both long touchdown passes.
Just before the 2-minute warning at the end of the game, the fans began chanting "Guarantee!" to mock Smith, whose picture was shown on the scoreboard.
