FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — In the New England Patriots first two games of the season, wide receiver Brandon LaFell was an invisible man: six passes thrown to him, zero catches, no impact on the offense.

But over the last several games, the 6-foot-3,210-pound LaFell has had as big an impact on the passing game as anyone on the team not named Brady or Gronkowski. That continued Sunday afternoon in a 51-23 victory over the Chicago Bears at Gillette Stadium.

LaFell had career highs in catches (11, on 11 targets) and yards (124) and scored on a 9-yard pass.

Asked if this is what he envisioned when he signed a free-agent contract with the Patriots in the offseason, LaFell said, “Everybody hopes to go out there and catch a lot of passes for a lot of yards. That’s what you hope for as a receiver.”

He was slowed in the offseason by a minor injury that also caused him to take it easy in training camp. Even then, both Brady and Coach Bill Belichick said LaFell showed flashes of what he could do.

“He’s been doing it all year,” said Belichick. “Big target, tough kid – really tough – plays hard, hard to tackle. I think we’ve seen a lot of examples of it this year; saw it in preseason, see it in practice.”

The difference, said Brady (who threw for five touchdown passes against the Bears) is that, “when (LaFell) gets a chance to make a play, he’s making them. I think with new players sometimes you really don’t know what someone’s able to do in your offense until you actually get out there and do it and you make the plays in game-type situations.”

LaFell’s breakthrough game came in a 41-14 loss to Kansas City when he caught six passes for 119 yards and a touchdown. Since then, he’s caught 20 passes in four games – all victories – for 296 yards and three touchdowns.

LaFell said he is feeling “more comfortable” as he gets more reps with Brady and the offense. He showed it against the Bears, working the sidelines and often breaking tackles once he had the ball.

Of course, he added, it doesn’t hurt to have a tight end like Gronkowski drawing the defense’s attention. Gronkowski caught nine passes for 149 yards and three touchdowns.

“It’s helpful, you can’t double team (the wide receivers),” he said. “You’ve got to respect Gronk in the middle of the field or he’ll do things like he did today.”

LaFell said the most fun he had Sunday was watching Gronkowski run with the ball. Gronkowski’s last touchdown was a 46-yarder in which he stiff-armed a Chicago defensive back to the ground at about the 20.

“You watch me (on that play),” said LaFell. “I was standing like 20 yards behind, turning my body like ‘Oh, oh, oh.’ I was a fan for a whole six seconds.”

QUICK STRIKES: The Patriots became the first team since 1970 – the NFL/AFL merger – to twice score three touchdowns in less than one minute. They scored three touchdowns in 57 seconds late in the first half – a 2-yard pass from Brady to Rob Gronkowski, a 9-yard pass to LaFell and a 15-yard fumble return by Rob Ninkovich. They also did it against the Jets on Nov. 22, 2012 (three in 52 seconds).

The Seahawks (against Minnesota on Sept. 29, 2002) and Falcons (against Carolina on Oct. 10, 1998) are the only other teams to score three touchdowns in less than a minute.

NINKOVICH HAD a rather simple explanation for his touchdown, on which he scooped up a Jay Cutler fumble and ran in from 15 yards:

“On that play, I was just rushing the quarterback. I had a good edge rush, then he stepped up in the pocket and I got smothered in there. I kept coming around, I saw him try to shovel the ball, or pass the ball – I didn’t know what he was trying to do – and the ball came out of his hands. I scooped it up and fell on it. I didn’t feel any pressure so I took off with it.”

It was Ninkovich’s second career touchdown, the other being a 12-yard fumble return against the Jets in 2011.

BRADY STUFF: Brady threw five touchdown passes for the first time since Oct. 19, 2009, against Tennessee, when he tossed six TD passes in a 59-0 rout. It was his sixth career game with five or more touchdown passes.

His completion rate Sunday (30 of 35, 85.7 percent) was the second-highest in the regular season in team history, behind only his 88.5 percent against Jacksonville on Dec. 27, 2009, when he was 23 for 26.

He has 17 career games with at least four touchdown passes and no interceptions – tied for the most in NFL history with Drew Brees and Peyton Manning. His 21 games with four or more touchdown passes are fourth in league history, tied with Dan Marino.

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