Patriots quarterback Tom Brady played his first home game of the 2016 season on Sunday and, much like his first road game, it looked like he was right back in the saddle after his delayed start to the season.
Brady and the Patriots took a bit of time to get rolling offensively -- it was 10-7 at the half and they trailed 14-10 in the third quarter -- but they were all but impossible for the Bengals to stop once they did. Brady was 29-of-35 for 376 yards and three touchdowns by the time the game came to an end and he became the fourth quarterback in history with 5,000 completions.
Brady said it was “a great crowd” welcoming him back to Gillette Stadium and said his offensive unit is an “exceptional group” while still finding room for improvement.
“Well, I can do some things better out there and I think offensively, we can too, but it’s good to be 5-1,” Brady said. “I think we’re at a decent place, so we’ve just got to keep stringing these games together. There’s a ton of football left. It’s a good defense we played today. They made it challenging on us, but we’re trying to figure out what we’re made of, and it was good to get going there in the second half.”
Brady said he was rusty after throwing for more than 400 yards in Week Five against the Browns, although any rust clearly is not in the area of understatement about how he and his team is performing.