FOXBOROUGH, Ma. — Vince Wilfork offered a self-endorsement after his New England Patriots hammered the Chicago Bears 51-23 at Gillette Stadium on Sunday.

“It’s going to be hard to beat us if we continue to play the way we played today,” the Patriots’ nose tackle said after New England captured a fourth straight victory. “It’s going to be very tough for teams to come to beat us.”

Next up: the high-flying Denver Broncos, who bring a 6-1 record to town next Sunday (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS) in the latest Tom Brady-Peyton Manning matchup. The Bears have a bye week before traveling to Green Bay.

“It will be a great game. It always is,” said Brady, who had another huge game on Sunday as the Patriots moved to 6-2.

Brady, making his 100th regular-season start at home, threw five touchdown passes and was near perfect as he improved to 87-13 as a home starter. Brady was 30 of 35 for 354 yards and four of the incompletions drops.

It was the third five-touchdown game of Brady’s career and he holds the club record with a pair of six-TD pass performances.

Three of Sunday’s touchdown passes went to tight end Rob Gronkowski, who had nine receptions but none after he left the game to be treated for dehydration following a 46-yard touchdown catch early in the third quarter.

“It was good to get him going … when he plays like beast mode he’s tough to stop,” Brady said of Gronkowski, who has 48 TD catches from Brady, the second-most in NFL history between a quarterback and his tight end (San Diego’s Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates have 69).

Another ominous sign to future foes: Brady is 100 of 144 for 1,268 yards, 14 touchdowns and no interceptions during New England’s winning streak, with the Patriots averaging almost 40 points per game during the current run.

Wide receiver Brandon LaFell had a career-high 11 catches for a career-best 124 yards and a touchdown and tight end Tim Wright had seven catches and a touchdown for the Patriots.

Running back Jonas Gray, in his second game since being added to the roster from the practice squad, ran for 86 yards in his first start.

“That was a pretty good day for us out there today,” understated coach Bill Belichick.

Quarterback Jay Cutler threw three touchdown passes and running back Matt Forte had 114 yards rushing and 54 yards and a touchdown receiving for the sliding Bears (3-5).

What the Bears said:

“I probably shouldn’t have celebrated like that, but it happens.” — DE Lamarr Houston after suffering what appeared to be a knee injury doing a sack dance with his team getting blown out on Sunday.

“We know we are a good football team. We just haven’t played like that the last couple weeks. The Patriots had a great day today. They are a good football team and you can’t make mistakes like we did today. We have a (bye) week to look at what we are doing and how we can get better.” — OL Roberto Garza

What the Patriots said:

“We just need to prepare (for the Denver Broncos) the way we did the past week.” — DT Vince Wilfork

“When (Rob Gronkowski) plays like beast mode he’s tough to stop.” — QB Tom Brady

“Next week, we’ve got a big matchup. We’ve just got to keep stringing them together.” — CB Brandon Browner

What we learned about the Bears:

1. A tirade by an outspoken player after a tough loss doesn’t necessarily lead to a good game the following week. People were speculating that wide receiver Brandon Marshall’s postgame outburst after the loss to the Miami Dolphins might pull the team closer together. Well, the Bears were blasted Sunday at New England, dropping their second straight to fall to 3-5.

2. That the turnover battle is important to the Bears. Of course, it is to everyone but look at Chicago’s numbers regarding takeaways. The Bears are 3-0 when winning the turnover battle and 0-5 when losing it. On Sunday, Jay Cutler fumbled the ball away for a touchdown and threw a Hail Mary interception, the only turnovers in new England’s 51-23 rout of Chicago.

–QB Jay Cutler was 20 of 30 for 227 yards and three touchdowns. He can’t be blamed for his one interception, which came on a Hail Mary-type pass late in the first half, but his sack fumble was turned into a 15-yard touchdown return by DE Rob Ninkovich to make it 38-7 late in the half. “We’re going to take some time off, obviously, with the bye week, come in tomorrow and watch some film, and collectively, as a whole we have to decide how we want to end this year and how we want to do in this second half,” he said. “Do we want to just pack it in and hover around .500, maybe a little bit below, or do we want to use the talent in that locker room to try and make a run for this?”

–RB Matt Forte was one of the few Bears who had a good game in Sunday’s blowout. He ran for 114 yards and caught six passes for 54 yards, scoring a touchdown and converting one of his team’s two 2-point conversions.

–WR Brandon Marshall, playing a week after a post-game locker room tirade after the loss to the Miami Dolphins, went head-to-head with CB Darrelle Revis on Sunday and Revis and the Patriots got the better of it. Marshall was targeted 10 times and had just three catches, for 35 yards. Revis also picked off a Hail Mary pass near the end of the first half.

What we learned about the Patriots:

1. The Patriots have come together since getting blown out at Kansas City. That was on a Monday night, Sept. 29, and the Pats then went 4-0 in October, capped by Sunday’s 51-23 shellacking of the Chicago Bears. “I think we’ve seen a lot of improvement in some of our players and some of our units and our entire group over the first half of the season. Hopefully we can continue to stay on that climb.”

2. It’s clear New England will be OK without Stevan Ridley. He was the club’s leading rusher and had cleared his fumbling problems when he was lost for the season to a knee injury. But Shane Vereen and rookies Jonas Gray and James White seem to have things under control. Gray, just brought up from the practice squad before the Oct. 16 games, had 86 yards on 17 carries on Sunday.

–QB Tom Brady was masterful in Sunday’s 51-23 victory over the Chicago Bears. He was 30 of 35 for 354 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions — the third five-TD game of his career and he has the club record with a pair of six-TD efforts. This was his 100th home regular season start and he improved to 87-13 in those games. It was the 17th game of his career where he threw four-plus touchdown passes without a pick, tying him with Drew Brees for the all-time NFL lead. Oh, and this was his 61st 300-yard game.

–TE Rob Gronkowski left Sunday’s game in the third quarter because of dehydration. But he had already had nine catches, for 149 yards and three touchdowns. The last TD, his last play of the day, was a stunning Gronkowski-type catch and run that saw him break a tackle and continue on for the score. “When he plays like beast mode he’s tough to stop,” said Brady.

–WR Brandon LaFell caught a career-high 11 passes for a career-best 147 yards. “Big target” and “tough kid” were two of the things Belichick said about him after the game. “Plays hard, hard to tackle,” said Belichick. Said Brady: He has great catch-and-run ability. He’s such a strong runner and when you get the ball in his hands good things happen, so we’ve got to keep finding ways to get him the ball.”

–RB Jonas Gray, promoted before last week’s game with the Jets, made his first start and ran for 86 yards on 17 carries in the big win. “He’s run hard all year,” said Belichick, who has added Gray to the mix since losing leading rusher Stevan Ridley to a season-ending knee injury.” He did that in preseason, does it every day in practice; training camp. That’s the way he plays. I thought he did a good job.”