FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) – Going 17-1 in games decided by fewer than seven points isn’t enough for Tom Brady. Neither is throwing for 335 yards and three touchdowns in his season opener.

He could be 18-0 in those starts. And he did have 12 incompletions among his 38 passes in that first game last Thursday night against the Indianapolis Colts.

There are plenty of ways the two-time Super Bowl MVP for the New England Patriots wants to get better.

“Oh, man, where do I start?” Brady said Wednesday. “There’s so many things that I’d like to improve on – my recognition of what the defense is doing, making better decisions with the ball, especially late in the game.”

The Patriots beat the Colts 27-24 but failed to put the game away on offense. On Indianapolis’s last two series, the defense recovered Edgerrin James’ fumble at the New England 1-yard line then came up with a 12-yard sack that forced Mike Vanderjagt to try a 48-yard field goal that he missed on the next to last play of the game.

“We really had an opportunity at the end of the game to finish the game out the way we wanted to and we put our defense back on the field and that’s not something we wanted to do,” Brady said.

But his touchdown passes to Deion Branch, David Patten and Daniel Graham – and his impressive 111.2 passer rating – made the win possible.

“Nothing Tom does surprises me,” center Dan Koppen said. “He’s more prepared on this team than anybody. He got back there and got in a groove.”

But that didn’t satisfy Brady.

“Tom was very accurate, but every week there’s room for improvement,” said David Givens, one of seven Patriots with receptions in the opener. “Unless he’s completing 100 percent of his balls, he’s not going to be complacent.”

He’s not at all happy about his lone loss by fewer than seven points. It came in the fourth game last year, 20-17 at Washington.

The Patriots trailed 20-3 midway through the third quarter but made it 20-17 and had a first down at the Washington 45-yard line with 1:39 left in the game.

“When you look at those last three plays, it was just ridiculous that we didn’t do anything with the ball,” Brady said.

Operating from the shotgun, he threw an incomplete pass for Branch, then hit Larry Centers for a 5-yard gain. Centers then ran up the middle for 2 yards to the 38, but Brady’s next pass – and the Patriots final play – was intended for Graham but fell incomplete.

“That lasted through the rest of last season,” Brady said. “That just kind of gnawed at this whole team. That was an embarrassing loss and performance late in the game.”

The Patriots haven’t lost since – a stretch of 16 regular-season and playoff games. Five teams share the NFL record of 18.

They can make it 17 straight on Sunday in Arizona, then have a bye week before visiting Buffalo on Oct. 3.

The Cardinals have just one winning season in their last 19 but have a new coach, Dennis Green, and suffered a narrow 17-10 loss to St. Louis on Sunday. With a new staff, studying last year’s game film may not help the Patriots a great deal.

“If it wasn’t for an interception return that was called back, they had a great chance of beating” the Rams, Brady said. “So it’s a tough team and it’s a team we’re not really familiar with.”

Brady has won 41 of his 53 games as a starter, including 6-0 in the playoffs. The Cardinals’ last 41 wins have come over a span of 120 games.

But the Patriots will be on the road in the Arizona heat against a team with a new coach who won four NFC Central titles and went to the playoffs eight times in his 10 years with Minnesota.

And, of course, the demanding Brady made some bad plays against Indianapolis.

“Some reads I would have liked to have back. Some throws I would have liked to have back,” he said. “There’s much improvement to be made. You always wish you’d start off doing everything right, but it’s not the case.”

• The Patriots signed safety Curry Burns to the practice squad Wednesday, filling a vacancy created when Russell Stuvaints was signed to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ active roster. Burns was drafted out of the University of Louisville by the Houston Texans in the seventh round of the 2003 draft.