FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The only thing more obvious than the yards and touchdowns that running back Jonas Gray recorded Sunday night in the New England Patriots’ 42-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts were the witty headlines writers, editors and the Twitterverse came up with for the youngster’s breakout effort.

Thanks to the literary phenomenon “Fifty Shades of Grey,” Gray was an instant play-on-words star.

–199 Shades of Gray. An allusion to the young back’s rushing yards.

–38 Shades of Gray. A link to his carries.

–Then there were the more tradition puns of Gray Matters or Going Gray or A Touch of Gray.

The former Notre Dame runner, who was undrafted in 2012, began this season on the practice squad.

Whether he can maintain any form of ground success remains a question. But there’s no question that on a night Tom Brady threw a pair of ugly first-half interceptions on the road, Gray’s 199 yards and four touchdowns paced the Patriots (8-2) to a key victory that put the team in the driver’s seat for the No. 1 seed in the AFC.

Not bad for a guy who never had an NFL carry until Week 7 against the New York Jets and, against the Colts’ undersized front, more than doubled his career production.

Gray notched his first touchdown and set a franchise rushing touchdown record, becoming the first player since 1921 to have four touchdowns in a game without previously notching a score.

“Sweet feeling, man,” Gray said. “Just honestly blessed.”

Brady certainly felt blessed, handing off and watching someone else key the output as New England topped 40 points for the third straight game.

“I think there are games that you go in and we’re not sure how good we’re going to run it. But when it’s going well, you want to keep giving it to him,” Brady said. “They were creating holes, and Jonas Gray was finding yards, whether it was cutting back or staying with his blocks. He just had great vision. He ran for almost 200 yards, so it was a pretty sweet night for a running back.”

But it was far from a one-man show. After breaking down the film, coach Bill Belichick raved about the group effort to put up a season-best 244 yards on the ground.

“We got overall real good effort in the running game from everybody really: the tight ends, the fullback, the offensive line,” Belichick said. “I thought Jonas read the blocks well and got good yardage on the plays, but there was certainly a lot of good blocking in front of him. We got some good holes to run through.

“Tom did a good job as well of getting us into the best play a couple times or getting us out of a bad play in a couple situations as well. Really, it was a good team effort from the players and all the guys were part of it. I wouldn’t put really too many ahead of anybody else. It was all a good part of it. I thought the offensive coaching staff had a great plan and scheme.”

It was a different script and a different name in the starring role, but the result was the same for New England: An impressive win to extend the Patriots’ margin of error in the AFC on a day when Denver was upset by the Rams.

It was a marquee win away from Foxborough for a team that has been less than dominant on the road in recent years.

It was a run-first victory for a team that’s on another run toward the postseason.

And it was a breakout day for a young running back named Gray, bringing forth plenty of witty headlines across the Internet as well as plenty more things for opposing defenses to think about as they prepare for a Patriots team that’s putting together another late-season surge under Belichick.

REPORT CARD VS. COLTS

–PASSING OFFENSE: C — It was a not very Tom Brady-like performance as he threw multiple picks for the first time since the Week 4 blowout loss in Kansas City. Though he was not sacked, Brady was hit six times and that played some role in his early struggles, which began with a pair of interceptions in the first half. He completed 19 of 30 attempts for 257 yards, with a pair of touchdowns to go along with the two picks, for a rating of 85. Julian Edelman had five catches for 50 yards, while tight end Rob Gronkowski had 71 yards on his four catches, including a violent 26-yard catch-and-rumble touchdown to close the door on the home team.

–RUSHING OFFENSE: A-plus — The Patriots entered the game with the NFL’s No. 19 rushing attack. The Colts had the ninth-ranked run defense. But Jonas Gray, a recent practice squad graduate, carried 38 times for 199 yards and a franchise-record four touchdowns. The offensive line, fullback James Develin, Gronkowski and rookie tackle-turned-tight end Cameron Fleming dominated the Colts’ defensive front. Running back Shane Vereen added one 25-yard play, while Julius Edelman had 31 yards on a pair of end-arounds.

–PASS DEFENSE: B-minus — Andrew Luck and the Colts came into Sunday night with the NFL’s top scoring attack and No. 1 passing unit. But a game after Darrelle Revis and Co. did the job against Peyton Manning’s Broncos, the New England secondary once again held its own on the road in Indy. Luck threw for 303 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including 144 yards to tight end Coby Fleener, but the Colts were held below 27 points for just the second time in 10 games.

–RUSH DEFENSE: A — New England’s front has been questioned after losing Jerod Mayo and Chandler Jones to injury and giving up more than 150 yards four times in the first eight weeks. But there was none of that in Indy as the Colts picked up just 19 yards on 17 carries, and 15 yards came on Luck runs. The Patriots held stout up front and tackled extremely well to make the Indy attack even more one-dimensional than it usually is.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: C-minus — Special teams was almost an afterthought in Indy and did little to impress in limited chances. Ryan Allen punted just once, but that attempt was a bad touchback. Danny Amendola had just six yards on three punt returns, including an ill-advised return inside his 10. Amendola had a mere 21 yards on his only kickoff return. New England also had three penalties on the kicking units.

–COACHING: A-minus — When you dominate in the running game on both sides of the ball, a nod certainly has to go to the game planning. Belichick’s staff took advantage of an undersized Colts front with plenty of heavy sets on offense, and it couldn’t have worked much better. Defensively the unit held stout up front while the various man and zone schemes in the back end limited Luck and the Indy attack. Belichick lost a challenge on a play that he admitted served as much as a timeout as a true attempt to overturn a reception and made a curious call to kneel down with 51 seconds and three timeouts left in the first half. That may have sent a message to his team, but on this night the bulk of what Belichick and his assistants drew up got the better of Chuck Pagano and his Colts staff.