Patriots right wrongs with 43-17 win over Cincinatti

October 6th, 2014
by Dakota Antelman

All was well in Foxboro Sunday night. The sun rose, the sun set, the fans filled the stands and Tom Brady played hall of fame quality football. Though the former of those facts had occurred in constant repetition throughout this NFL season, the latter was yet to be present.  

After a week were fans were more critical of Tom Brady than they had been at any point in recent memory, the 15 year vet proved he had not become complacent. He marched out of the gate angry, tossing a 30 yard pass up the middle on the first play of the game before soon following it up with a thrilling string of QB sneaks and quick read plays in the red-zone. As a result the Patriots proved the haters wrong less than 3 minutes into the game when a short touchdown run by Stephan Ridley gave them a 7-0 lead.

"It was a long week. We dug deep. [I'm] proud of everybody," Brady said.

On a smaller basis than the team however, Tom Brady has reason to be proud of himself. The humble king of Patriots football tossed two touchdowns and a season high 292 passing yards all while upping his season completion percentage to a number higher than 60 for the first time in weeks.

Brady’s statistical success was in all truth boosted by climactic performances by a wide array of receivers. Finally, Tom Brady used the entire arsenal of weapons available to him.

Rob Gronkowski caught 6 passes for 100 yards and a touchdown Sunday. He glorified Brady’s day with long runs after the catch.

"I told my brother before we came to the game, 'I'm going to make 12 look like Tom Brady again today, baby!'"

Beyond the long runs, Gronkowski was on the receiving end of perhaps the biggest play of the game in regards to its place in football history. With a 28 yard toss to Gronk late in the 2^nd quarter, Brady became the 6^th quarterback in NFL history to throw 50,000 passing yards. 

“It’s awesome,” Brady said of the yardage milestone. 

Brady threw 32 passes in the game in which his team had the ball for the majority of the time. Such was made true by the fact that the Patriots defense forced 4 turnovers.

"If you turn the ball over and don't make any third downs, you have a chance to have this happen to you," said Bengals coach, Marvin Lewis.

The New England Patriots silenced any who went against them Sunday. They were angry about what happened last Monday just as angry as they were about what followed it. But there was some order to their anger. They harnessed its power and churned out a 43-17 win over Cincinnati.

"We know we're a good football team," Patriots cornerback Darrelle Revis said. "It was important for us to stick together as a team."