35 thoughts on Tom Brady’s homecoming and the Patriots’ impressive win over the Bengals
Brady and Gronk sure seem to be at the height of their mutual powers once again.
COMMENTARY1.
I know nothing Tom Brady accomplishes should surprise us anymore. His extraordinary moments have come so often through the years — they’re so familiar, so normal — that it might be easy to take them for granted if we didn’t remind ourselves not to. So consider this the reminder. The degree of difficulty in the Patriots’ 35-17 victory over the Bengals Sunday was much higher than the final score would suggest. Brady took a beating in the first half from an amped up Bengals defense that was desperate to ruin the quarterback’s homecoming. The Patriots led by just three at half time. But no matter how often or hard they hit Brady, he had an answer, finishing 29 of 35 for 376 yards and three touchdowns. The more they walloped him, the better he got. I know, we’re used to seeing this out of him. It’s the norm. But that should not make it any less impressive.
2. Brady became the fourth quarterback to surpass 5,000 completions in his career, joining Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees. It seemed like roughly half of the 5,000 came in the second half to Rob Gronkowski, who finished with seven catches for a career-high 169 yards and a touchdown.
3. Oh yes, Gronk is back in full effect, and watching him play like this, when he’s running across the middle of the field like a horse who has no intention of ever going back to the barn, is one of the all-time recurring joys of being a Boston sports fan.
4. James White has come so far since last season’s AFC Championship Game, when he was targeted 16 times and proved only that he wasn’t yet ready for such responsibility. He’s really a useful little player now, one of those running backs who always seems one cut away from going a long distance.
5. His first touchdown catch (of his two Sunday) capped an eight-play, 75-yard Patriots drive to give them a 10-7 lead just before the half. A gust of wind still brings him down when he’s running in traffic, but if he can juke his way into the open field, look out.
6. That White touchdown was a total mismatch with 13-year veteran Karlos Dansby in coverage for the Bengals. I’m not saying he’s old, but I think he might have been pancake blocked by John Hannah at one point in his career.
7. I could watch that improvised first-quarter throw from Brady to Gronk on an endless loop until next week’s game if society would allow it. Brady dodged the pressure, shuffled sideways and then forward while looking like he was going to run, then spotted Gronk — who broke downfield when the play fell apart — with a perfect strike. It’s a reminder that two extraordinarily disciplined players can think alike and be at their best amid chaos.
8. Andy Dalton (21-31, 254 yards, 1 TD) has the reputation of throwing a good deep ball, but he checked down more than peak Mark Sanchez in the first half. Then again, he did start 10 of 10, so he really was taking what the Patriots’ defense gave him. My point: I still have no idea if he’s actually any good or not.
9. Gotta love what Chris Hogan brings to this offense. Once again he hit it big on a deep ball — or at least a long catch-and-run — taking the ball 39 yards right before the half to set up White’s go-ahead touchdown. He also drew a third-down penalty on Bengals cornerback Adam Jones to keep a drive alive with about 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
10. Seems like the Bills would have kept someone like Hogan. Might be the best player the Patriots have plucked away from Rex Ryan, though Danny Woodhead has an argument.
11. Malcolm Butler has seemed to have had an uneven season so far, at least by the high expectations we heaped on him in his third year. But the reality is that save for periodic struggles against the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, he’s been very good.
12. Brandon LaFell’s touchdown catch in the third quarter was the first Butler has allowed all season.
13. He had a terrific breakup of a corner fade to A.J. Green in the first half, and dropped a potential interception in the second half after breaking on the ball so quickly that somewhere hundreds of miles away, Russell Wilson felt a shiver that he couldn’t explain.
14. And Butler’s tackling never goes into a slump. He hauled down LaFell from behind — no easy feat even when there’s a good angle — to stop the Bengals short of a first down on their first possession. Tackling is an important and incredibly underrated skill for a cornerback to possess. Butler and Logan Ryan are both very good at it.
15. Speaking of LaFell, it annoys me to no end that some Patriots fans don’t remember him well. Yeah, he dropped a lot passes last season. He also was never healthy.
16. When he was healthy, in 2014, he was an important contributor in their run to the Super Bowl, compiling nearly 1,000 yards during the regular season and catching touchdown passes in the AFC Divisional Round game and the Super Bowl.
17. In other words: Please don’t let the last thing you remember define the player.
18. LeGarrette Blount didn’t have spectacular statistics, finishing with 50 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries. But he seemed to do that old Antowain Smith trick of gaining the exact amount of yardage the Patriots need to extend a drive a couple of times. Once again he set a tone of toughness for the Patriots’ offense.
19. No knock on sideline reporter Evan Washburn, but if CBS put Jamie Erdahl with Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts, it would easily be the network’s best NFL broadcast team.
20. Might be anyway, I suppose. It sure isn’t the one they consider their No. 1 team.
21. Just when linebacker Elandon Roberts was starting to look like a real find, he departed with an injury after a play at the goal line in the first half. Fortunately, he was OK and returned in the second half after passing concussion protocol.
22. Still, it was a reminder of one of the things about the NFL that frustrates me most: Injuries too often abbreviate so many promising seasons, for players and teams. Dion Lewis’s injury last year still gets me. That was so fun, and then it was over.
23. Hey, but Lewis could be back in a couple of weeks. He and White are the best tandem of change-of-pace backs the Patriots have had since Shane Vereen and Woodhead five or so years ago.
24. It’s not officially a Bengals game until Vontaze Burfict freaks out. So, yes, it officially became a Bengals game in the fourth quarter, when he lost his mind after Gronk yapped at him after a catch, caught another pass, and yapped at him again.
25. Then again, it was Gronk who got hit with the taunting penalty, which suggests whatever he was saying was very hurtful.
26. You know who would have made a great Bengal? Brandon Meriweather.
27. It wasn’t necessarily a turning point at the time, but the Patriots’ goal-line stand that thwarted a 16-play, 89-yard drive that took 8 minutes and 52 seconds of clock in the first half was a tribute to the depth of the Patriots’ defense.
28. Anthony Johnson, Chris Long, Dont’a Hightower, and Alan Branch were among those in on the final play. A defense with fewer quality players would have been exhausted by the end of that drive.
29. I’m not especially concerned about Stephen Gostkowski’s mini-slump. Ten years of extraordinary performance buys a lot of leeway with me.
30. But he did miss an extra point, and his late field goal barely knuckled through, and so those who are prone to worrying for fun and profit have gained a little more ammunition.
31. The Bengals sure do talk a lot for a team that hasn’t won a single playoff game in its coach’s 14-year tenure.
32. They’re a very talented team, probably one of the top four in that regard in the AFC, along with the Patriots, Steelers and Broncos.
33. But they’re 2-4 and their roster is dotted with knuckleheads. It’ll be interesting to see where the go from here, because they don’t seem to be a unit built to handle adversity.
34. Meanwhile, the Patriots are 5-1. Brady looks as sharp as he ever has, and it’s on to Pittsburgh next week. They have to protect Brady better, but with Ben Roethlisberger suffering an ankle injury Sunday, you have to like their chances, even on the road.
35. Hell, you have to always like their chances, don’t you?
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