FOXBORO -- In the midst of a record-setting season, the box score will cause you to do a double take.

Last Sunday, the Broncos held Rob Gronkowski to four catches for 53 yards and no touchdowns, one of his quietest games of the season. It marked the first game since October where he didn’t finish with a touchdown (a six-game streak) and if you take out the 38-yarder he had down the seam in the fourth quarter (where Denver’s coverage appeared to break down, leaving him wide open), he ended with three catches for 15 yards.

In his place, the Patriots were able to get a standout performance from tight end Aaron Hernandez, who finished with a career-high nine catches for 129 yards and a touchdown. Meanwhile, there were times where his fellow tight end was doubled up, as well as more than a few occasions where the Broncos tried to get physical with him. New England offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien said it was a combination of things that led to a quieter-than-usual afternoon for the big fella.

“They did a lot of different things to him,” O’Brien said. “They hit him at the line of scrimmage or they put two guys on him or whatever it was.

“Whenever that happens, that means -- there’s only 11 players on the field so you can’t double everybody. That’s something where Aaron benefitted from that, and the backs benefited from it. That’s a good thing. We’ll just have to keep seeing how teams are playing us and get ready game to game, week to week.”

Through 14 games, Gronkowski has 75 catches for 1,141 yards and 15 touchdowns. His 15 TDs are the most in a season for any tight end in NFL history. And including his 2-yard touchdown run vs. Indianapolis (12/4), his 16 total touchdowns this season are the highest number of combined touchdowns by a tight end in NFL history. So when someone slows him down, it’s newsworthy.

But Sunday wasn’t the first time that Gronkowski has been held in check. There was a two-game stretch in October (against Oakland and the New York Jets) where he had a combined five catches for 46 yards and no touchdowns. Like Hernandez in Denver, in those games, the Patriots were able to make up for it with over-the-top contributions from other receivers: in the Raiders game, Welker had nine catches for 158 yards and a touchdown. Welker also had a huge afternoon against the Jets with five catches for 124 yards.

After the game on Sunday, Gronkowski certainly wasn’t sweating his diminished stat line. While he acknowledges that he’s starting to see a difference in the way teams have defended him this year, like O’Brien, he’s taking comfort in the fact that the Patriots have so many other options in the passing game they can survive when doesn’t post crazy numbers.

“We just have so many weapons on the team that you can’t really focus on one person,” Gronkowski said. “We’ve got Wes Welker, Deion Branch, Aaron Hernandez, we’ve got the running backs -- as a whole they’re all great players. It’s just crazy. I mean, we’ve seen it all before and I’ve seen it all. We’ve just got to be prepared every single week for everything so you’re ready when it comes game time.”

But taking a closer look at Gronkowski’s snaps, with the help of Pro Football Focus, we were able to find a reason behind that three-game dip: while teams may try and present different defensive packages to try and slow him down, in each one of those three games, the Patriots appeared to lean heavily on Gronkowski more as a blocker as opposed to a pass catcher. Last week against Denver, he was on the field for 76 snaps, and on 41 of those, he was a blocker (PFF has him listed as a blocker on 39 running plays and two pass plays). It marked the second time this season where he spent more than 40 snaps in a game as a blocker, with the other time coming in the game against the first game against the Jets where he had four catches for 31 yards and no touchdowns.

In fact, when Gronkowski is asked to spend more than 50 percent of his snaps as a blocker this season, his average offensive output has decreased. Overall, this season, he’s averaged 5.3 catches, 81 yards and one touchdown per game. On the six occasions where he’s spent 50 percent or more of his snaps as a blocker either in the running or passing game, his average stat line reads 3.5 catches, 56.6 yards and 0.7 touchdowns a game.

In the end, it’s a tribute to Gronkowski’s ability both as a pass catcher and a blocker that they trust him as someone who can fill both roles. And it also says something about the depth of the New England passing game that it can go a game here or there without a fabled Gronk spike or two and still manage to achieve a real level of success.

“Everybody is important,” said Patriots coach Bill Belichick. “Offense is about team execution, especially in the passing game. We don’t know where the ball is going to go when the play is called, we don’t know what coverage their defense is going to be in. Everybody has to be ready.

“All the receivers have to be ready to beat their man or get to a space where they’re open. Tom will try to make the best decision he can and get it to the guy that gives us the best opportunity. You can’t call a pass that just goes to one receiver. I just don’t understand that. A screen pass, that’s one thing. When you send five guys out for the pass and [say], ‘I’m just going to throw it to this guy,’ it just doesn’t work that way.”