Healthy Rob Gronkowski makes Patriots much harder to beat

Rob Gronkowski went to the New England Patriots’ locker room early in the third quarter with a bout of dehydration.

Too much eating, not enough drinking for Gronk.

Tom Brady hit Gronkowski three times for touchdowns — from 6, 2 and 46 yards — in a 51-23 Patriots blowout of the Chicago Bears. It got to the point where you could call out the ball going to him, but the Bears had zero answers to stopping him. 

This was a perfect storm: an emerging Gronk facing a Bears defense that had no one qualified to cover him, plus a dialed-in Brady with all day to throw.

The result was a nine-catch, 149-yard, three-score game that gives the Patriots some hope they can match blows with the Denver Broncos next week.

Early in the season, Gronkowski looked tentative and hesitant coming back from his torn ACL from last year. But with each passing game, and namely the past four games, Gronk has started to dominate. Sunday against the Bears was a great display of his improved quickness, his awesome stiff-arm power and his coverage-changing ability. 

And don’t look now, but this Brady guy seems to have figured things out since his Monday meltdown against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 4. Since then in four games, Brady is 101-for-145 passing (69.7 percent) for 1,268 yards, with 14 touchdowns and zero turnovers.

Not bad.

And now we have another Brady-Peyton Manning showcase? Tasty as ever.

But don’t overlook the Gronkowski-Julius Thomas battle, either. Oh sure, Manning has a ton of targets he can throw to. But the Patriots saw just how tough Thomas was to cover last season. In the Patriots’ win in Foxborough, Thomas was inactive; in the AFC title game in Denver, he caught a team-best eight passes on a team-best 11 targets for 85 yards, with several big catches in the second half including a huge 37-yard reception in the fourth quarter to help ice the game.

The Gronk factor had its affect on the two games, too. In the first one, a healthy Gronk caught seven passes for 90 yards and a touchdown. In the rematch, the Patriots had no X-factor in the receiving game with Gronkowski hurt. Brady had to force the ball on 29 of his 38 throws to Julian Edelman, Shane Vereen and Austin Collie (!).

Brady-Manning is always great. But having Gronk and Thomas healthy and available makes this one a little more special.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm