FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Don’t write Tom Brady’s football obituary just yet.
Same goes for the Patriots, who made just about everything written and said about them last week look silly with a 43-17 rout in Foxborough Sunday night of the previously unbeaten Bengals.
Jumping on Cincinnati like madmen literally from the game’s first offensive snap, Brady and New England showed an appreciative Gillette Stadium crowd, the rest of the AFC East and the rest of the NFL the Patriots’ mystique isn’t dead just yet.
On a chilly night in front of a national TV audience, this was redemption for Brady and a top-to-bottom dismantling of the Bengals as New England made Cincinnati’s 3-0 start look fraudulent.
Reports Brady and Bill Belichick were feuding and the Patriots were thinking about parting ways with their Hall of Fame quarterback in the wake of last Monday’s 41-14 loss to the Chiefs will have to go on the back burner for at least another week.
Not only was Brady practically flawless with 292 passing yards and two touchdowns, but Rob Gronkowski looked like the Gronk of old, the Patriots ran for 224 yards on Cincinnati’s top-ranked defense and New England thoroughly stifled Andy Dalton and the Bengals’ offense when it mattered.
Dalton suffered his first sack of the season and was pulled in favor of Jason Campbell after throwing for just 204 yards as Cincinnati lost three fumbles and went 0-for-6 on third down.
“That was a satisfying night,” said Belichick, who improved to 34-4 after a loss since 2003.
Belichick didn’t explain exactly why it was so satisfying, but the Patriots boss didn’t have to after a week in which reports swirled of tension between Brady and his coach over New England’s dreary 2-2 start.
“It’s hard to be oblivious to things,” said Brady, who denied any tension with the coaches. “We all have TVs and the Internet. The questions I get and emails I get — they’re all concerned. I’m always emailing back like, ‘Nobody died. It was just a loss.’ We’ve always done a good job of putting losses behind us.”
The tone was set by Brady and the Patriots right off the bat, as they opened the game with a 10-play, 80-yard drive so sharply and briskly executed it left the Bengals dazed and on their heels.
Brady started the night with a 20-yard laser to wideout Brandon LaFell, completed a 30-yarder to tight end Tim Wright three players later and even carried three times himself before Stevan Ridley bulled in from a yard out to give the Patriots the rare recent sensation of an actual offensive touchdown.
The TD was the first allowed all season by Cincinnati in the first half, and it didn’t take long for the Patriots to do it again. They needed just six plays and 58 yards to make it 14-0 on a perfect, 17-yard strike from Brady to Wright between two defenders.
A capacity crowd that came in expecting the worst after last Monday’s rout at the hands of the Chiefs were suddenly being treated to a 2007 throwback game. They showed Brady their appreciation by bellowing “Brady! Brady! Brady!” on three separate occasions in the first half.
The Patriots stretched that lead to 20-3 at the half and never looked back, rolling up a season-high 505 total yards and a whopping 30 first downs.
It also didn’t help the Bengals’ case that Darrelle Revis was as determined as Brady.
Revis suffocated Bengals go-to receiver A.J. Green in the first half. Green ended up with five catches for 81 yards and a score, but the TD came when Revis was sidelined briefly by a hamstring injury.
Still, No. 12 was the big story on this night for New England.
“We made Tom Brady look like Tom Brady after you guys [media] were criticizing him all week,” said Gronkowksi, who had six catches for 100 yards and a TD. “The fans and everything — it feels so good.”
