Leigh Bodden celebrates his 53-yard touchdown on an interception return in the first quarter Sunday.

Journal photo / Glenn Osmundson

FOXBORO — Sometimes seven days fly by.

And sometimes they feel like a month.

The time between the New England Patriots’ last game, their difficult loss to the Colts in Indianapolis, and their next one, Sunday’s game against AFC East rival New York, was more of the latter.

“It was a long week for us all,” Tom Brady said.

But at the end of one of the longer regular-season weeks in recent Patriots’ history, the team got past the disappointment of the Colts game and exacted a little — or a lot — of revenge on the Jets, posting a 31-14 win to cement their status atop the division standings.

At 7-3, the Pats are two games clear of the Dolphins, who have the same 3-1 AFC East record as New England. New York fell to 4-6, having lost six of its last seven games, and are 1-4 in division play.

The Patriots’ bounce-back from the loss in Indianapolis began on Wednesday. Coach Bill Belichick gave his players Monday off as well as their customary Tuesday, and when they came in on Wednesday, they went over the game film, discussed what went wrong, and then moved on.

“I thought the players came in, they had a really strong purpose. We had good meetings, good walk-throughs, good practice,” Belichick said. “I thought we got off to a real good start on Wednesday. That was probably the biggest day for us and then we kind of built on that the last two days of the week. I thought it was big that we got off to a good start on Wednesday.”

New England also got off to a good start Sunday thanks to Leigh Bodden, who had a career day.

On New York’s second possession of the game, quarterback Mark Sanchez dropped back on third-and-8, looking for Jerricho Cotchery. Bodden broke on the ball and it was almost as if Sanchez had meant for the ball to go to him. Bodden had a clear path to the end zone, a 53-yard pick-six.

“I just played man-to-man pressed up, Cotchery ran to the outside and tried to cut back in and I saw the ball and just went for it,” Bodden said. “I pretty much knew I had six (points).”

The Patriots got their second touchdown on their next possession, with Wes Welker making of catches of 17, 15 and 19 yards as well as an 11-yard reverse to propel the offense into the end zone.

That’s how it went for much of the day for New England: Bodden picked off Sanchez and Welker picked apart the Jets’ defense.

Bodden tied a Pats’ team record with three interceptions, and Welker set a team record for receptions in a non-overtime game with 15 for 192 yards, both career highs.

Not surprisingly, both players received game balls from Belichick in a happy locker room postgame.

“He played big and he always does,” Brady said of Welker. “He’s a great player and he’s working the middle of the field and when the coverage comes to Randy (Moss), Wes has some opportunities. And he played a great game. What a performance.”

New England was without Welker for the Week Two game against New York, and if there were any doubt about his value to the Pats before Sunday, there should be absolutely no questions now.

With cornerback Darelle Revis shadowing Moss everywhere he went, it was up to the other Jets’ defensive backs to keep Welker in check, and they failed miserably at it.

There was more than one occasion on Sunday when Welker wasn’t just open but it was almost as if New York had neglected to cover him at all. That was apparent on a third-down play in the second quarter when Brady hit Welker in the middle of the field and he was essentially on an island.

Welker had a seam and picked up 43 yards on the play, dragged down at the three-yard line.

“It looked like they were trying to blitz us and I think they bailed out at the last second,” Brady said of the play. “But at that point Wes was already running up the field, so he mailboxed [waved] his hand, which he doesn’t normally do. It’s hard to see because he’s 5-foot-7, but he made a great play, a great catch. We really needed that one.”

While the offense continues to chug along — Brady threw for over 300 yards for the fifth straight week — the defense showed no ill effects after last week’s fourth-quarter meltdown.

The game plan going in was to pressure Sanchez as much as possible, because the Pats knew that he makes poor decisions if his first option isn’t there. Time and time again, New England got pressure quickly, collapsing the pocket and forcing Sanchez to throw poor passes.

He completed just eight of 21 passes.

“It was a lot of emotion from last week that we had, not finishing the game and we definitely wanted to finish this week,” Bodden said. “That’s what we did this week against the Jets.”

So maybe the eight days between the Jets game and next Monday night’s prime-time showdown with the undefeated Saints in New Orleans won’t seem to drag on.

smanza@projo.com