Fred Taylor certainly looked like a good investment on the part of the New England Patriots on Sunday, didn’t he?

Indeed, thanks to Taylor’s 105 yards and one touchdown on 21 carries, the Patriots didn’t even miss back Laurence Maroney, who left the game for good in the first half with a thigh injury after 17 yards on four carries.

No doubt, Taylor was the key to the Patriots’ time-of-possession offense, and said he, the other backs and offensive linemen were challenged during the week by head coach Bill Belichick to produce. And produce they did, to the tune of 168 yards on the ground.

“We did say we would like to try to establish the run,” Taylor said. “Coach challenged all of us, the offensive line, the backs, and we were fortunate enough to go out there and make it happen.”

Taylor said he got fired up fromt he disappointed looks in the eyes of the Falcons defenders. He carried the ball four straight times on a first-half drive that ended with his 8-yard touchdown run, and it appears he can look back to that moment as his arrival as a Patriot.

“I wish I had offensive linemen in here,” Taylor said. “They did most of the work. They did most of that, I mean, the majority of that. They handled the down linemen. The linebackers, they didn’t maintain their discipline in their gap assignment. My job was to just run straight. I didn’t do much. I didn’t do much. On the touchdown run, you see, I walked into the end zone so the offensive line — they blocked it up like it was supposed to be.”

 Taylor, who passed John Riggins into 15th place on the NFL’s all-time rushing list (he now has 11,447 career yards) says he kept things simple when he arrived.

“I’ve never been one of those guys who was hard to coach,” he said. “I just try and lisa lot of questions and just fall in line. From that standpoint, it wasn’t a whole lot difficult. Just a matter of getting comfortable in the terminology and the way the quarterback makes the call and how detailed they want each and every play to be. And then, once you hit that mark, you play a little faster and I think I’m finally getting comfortable in my role.”

And what is that role? Just be ready. “Just be ready to play, be ready to go at game time,” he said.

And he was ready on Sunday.

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Sixth round draft pick and defensive lineman Myron Pryor certainly got his feet more than wet, as he had to fill in once nose tackle Vince Wilfork went down to an ankle injury. Pryor, who had his own injury woes the first couple of weeks,  had appeared in a few plays earlier, but he got steady reps once the injury occured.

“It took a couple of plays to get back in the mix,” he said. “I hadn’t really felt that fast tempo. At first I was kind of nervous, but after a while, just settle in and mentally, everything went smoothly.

“I think I did all right. Coming back from missing a lot of days. All I can do is just keep working, working out, working hard, and I think everything should be OK…It’s (the injury to Wilfork) reality. I was just ready to step in and he congratulated me after the game…I feel pretty good about that.”

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Pats wide receiver Randy Moss got off to a slow start but managed to haul in 10 catches for 116 yards, although zero TDs. It was his 61st career 100-yard receiving game, 15th of his career, ranking him second all-tim in the NFL in that category behind Hall of Famer Jerry Rice’s 76. The Patriots are 15-0 when Moss has a 100-yard game and his 26 receptions in three games marks a career-best start, surpassing his 22 catches in the first three games of his first Patriots season in 2007.

“He got a lot of single coverage and he did a good job,” Belichick said. “He ran a lot of different routes…I think he did a good job attaking the coverage, the corners and even some of their split-safety coverage…He’s a tough guy to cover. We try to design and create situations where he has an opportunity and a little bit of space to work. He sure made a lot of plays today.”

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Belichick offered little on the injuries to Wilfork and Maroney.

“I’m sure everybody’s got some bumps and bruises after this one, it was a physical game,” he said….

Pats quarterback Tom Brady’s touchdown pass to Chris Baker made him the 27th player in NFL history to reach the career 200-TD milestone. He’s done it in 116 career games, and only three other QBs have done it faster: Brett Favre (107 games), Peyton Manning (106) and Dan Marino (89)…

The Patriots extended their regular-season winning streak against NFC teams to 16. Their last loss to an NFC club during the regular season was to Carolina on the road in Week Two of the 2005 season…

Tom Brady has not been sacked in his last 134 passing attempts…

Counting the post-season, the Patriots recorded the franchise’s 400th all-time victory. 

NEXT WEEK: The 3-0 Baltimore Ravens, who clobbered the hapless Cleveland Browns to the tune of 34-3 on Sunday, visit Gillette Stadium for a 1 p.m. game.

— TOM KING