FOXBORO – Remember when you were a kid and finding out you had a snow day was the best news you could get? When you gathered with all of your friends at the nearest hill for sledding and snowball fights and basically all the fun you could have?

Sunday's game against the Tennessee Titans was something like that for the New England Patriots.

The offense racked up over 600 total yards, the defense forced five turnovers, and the Pats basically did what they wanted in a 59-0 pasting of the pitiful Titans under a steady snowfall.

"It was a really fun day to be out there," Tom Brady said.

In all, the Patriots broke or tied 10 team records in the game, including points scored, margin of victory, most points in a half (45), most points in a quarter (35 in the second), and total net yards (619).

The win ties the mark for the largest shutout victory and largest margin of victory since the AFL-NFL merger; on Dec. 4, 1976, the Los Angeles Rams beat Atlanta by the same 59-0 score.

Tennessee came into the game without a win in its first five games, but both Bill Belichick and the New England players insisted all week that its opponent wasn't nearly as bad as their record would indicate.

While that may be true, on Sunday afternoon they were terrible.

The earliest moments of the game did not foretell a blowout: the Titans went three-and-out on their first drive, but New England missed its first chance to get on the scoreboard when Stephen Gostkowski pushed a 39-yard field goal attempt wide right.

It wasn't long after that, however, that things began getting out of hand.

Much-maligned running back Laurence Maroney burst through the middle of the line on a second-down carry and didn't stop until he reached the end zone 45 yards later. It was the longest run of the season for the Pats, and the first touchdown of the season for Maroney, who finished the day with 123 yards on 16 carries, a robust 7.7 average per rush.

Booed by the home fans two weeks ago when he had six yards on seven carries, Maroney did not want to get too high after his big day.

"I have to just keep going. I want to build off this – I can't get too high off it," he said. "Now it's about consistency. How many (good performances) can I put together?"

Another three-and-out for the Titans – they had just one first-quarter first down, and that came on a Patriots' penalty – was followed by another big play for New England. On first down from its own 33, Brady looked deep to Wes Welker for a 48-yard completion. The drive stalled inside the red zone, but this time Gostkowski converted, making a 33-yard try.

The pass to Welker was the first of over 40 yards this season, and silenced both Brady and Belichick, both of whom had stressed the lack of big plays in the days leading up to the game.

"I think we were just sick of hearing them and kind of wanted to shut them up," Welker said with a laugh. "It's something that definitely needs to be part of our offense. I think we had been so close on a bunch of them and we were just barely missing and today we were able to hit on some of those and make the game a lot easier."

But the 10-point outburst in the first was nothing compared to what was about to happen in the second quarter.

Safety Brandon Meriweather had the first of his two forced fumbles on the day on the fourth play of the period, stripping LenDale White; Jonathan Wilhite scooped up the loose ball.

Seven plays later Brady handed the ball to BenJarvus Green-Ellis, who saw his first game action of the season, and Green-Ellis tossed the ball back. The flea-flicker worked to perfection: Brady hurled the ball 40 yards for Randy Moss, who was waiting in the end zone to receive the 136th touchdown of his career.

"Benny pitched it back and had great time on the throw. You can always tell when Randy's open because he puts on another gear," Brady recalled. "I just threw it out there and he was wide open and made a great catch."

On the Titans very next snap, quarterback Kerry Collins – who completed just 2 of 12 passes for negative-7 yards – fumbled, and Mike Wright recovered. This time New England got the ball at the Tennessee 31, and wasted little time. The first down was a three-yard carry for Maroney, and second down was another pass to Moss, who was wide open under the goalpost.

The rest of the quarter followed a similar pattern: turnover Titans, touchdown Patriots.

By the time the seconds ticked off for halftime, Brady had thrown an NFL record five scores in the second quarter alone; he and Moss hooked up a third time at the start of the third quarter for his sixth TD pass of the day, a total which matched his total for the first five games of the season.

Against a banged-up secondary, which was missing its two starting cornerbacks, Brady was 29-for-34 for 380 yards. New England is now 21-2 when he throws for over 300 yards – a mark he surpassed before halftime.

The game was so much fun for all involved, the normally stoic Belichick even had a slight smile as he took to the podium for his post-game press conference.

"That was a really good effort by our team, all the way across the board . . . it was a good, solid all-around effort," he said. "The team had a really good week of practice and that was reflected in the way they played."

Nothing like having a little snow day fun with your friends.

smanza@projo.com