Brady has big day in homecoming, Patriots beat Bengals 35-17

NOTES: The Patriots have notched safeties in back-to-back games for the first time in team history.

The penalty pushed them back to the 23, and they settled for a field goal that made it 28-17.

Bennett, who scored three touchdowns last week, has 11 catches in the two games.

Gronk was arguably Brady’s favorite target moving up the field once the offense started gaining momentum.

Brady went on to suggest that the best course of action against teams like Cincinnati is to live to fight your battles later, while prioritizing the ultimate payback: winning on the scoreboard. Otherwise, Brady has had his way with the Bengals, throwing for 12 touchdowns and just two interceptions in his five wins against them. “He’s awesome. We were all excited to get out there today for him”.

Dalton got sacked for a safety in the second half and was under consistent pressure. We got a little more rush but obviously we had the lead.

Elandon Roberts was one of the highlights of the defense on Sunday. After injuries made 2015 a lost season, the Ravens don’t seem to be a team that will scare many opponents like they once did.

Aside from tight end Tyler Eifert, and a third-quarter leg injury to center Russell Bodine on Sunday, the Bengals are as healthy as they’ve been all season.

“Offensively we hurt ourselves in the first half”, a peeved Bill Belichick said, a sour look on his face from opening comment to final goodbye.

“I mean [Pat] Sims beat us on an inside move and then I think [Vontaze] Burfict got us on a blitz pickup”, Belichick said. “We played it better”.

“Some of the things they did, we were anticipating them doing it in the 1 half, but they didn’t do it until the 2 half”, Bengals LB Karlos Dansby said.

Business as usual for Tom Brady, “homecoming king”: The Patriots win over the Browns had to be taken with a grain of salt, but after beating the talented Bengals handily, their dominance has once again been reestablished.

In his first two games back, Brady has now completed 57 of his 75 passes for 782 yards and six TDs. He dragged down Dalton in the end zone in the third quarter to cut Cincinnati’s lead to 14-12.

He also said he didn’t say anything to get the flag for taunting Adam Jones late in the game.

The 11-year veteran, who entered the game 7-of-10 on field-goal attempts this year, converted 46- and 31-yarders, but he saw his National Football League record for consecutive extra points snapped at 478 (dating to his rookie year of 2006) when he missed after White’s second TD of the day pushed the Patriots’ lead to 25-14 with 2:58 to play in the third quarter.

Hightower has been unbelievable the last two weeks. “We don’t really mess around”, Bennett said.

“Any time the defense gets points, it’s good for the team”, said Julian Edelman. This defense is just all out there trying to make plays for each other. “It’s just hard enough to win and prepare without the distractions so when you start having the distractions it’s even harder to prepare”.

For New England it also comes at the ideal time as it prepare for back-to-back road games, first at AFC North-leading Pittsburgh and then Buffalo, which shutout New England 16-0 on October 2.

That good team is the Pittsburgh Steelers, who were upset yesterday by the Miami Dolphins and very likely are upset about it. They have a lot of good players. More importantly, the defense looked better once again with Dont’a Hightower back.

“It’s cool that I got a career high and everything but most important to me is getting that win”, he said. They tried to keep quarterback Andy Dalton on his toes by showing him different variations in coverage, but he was slowly picking them apart. They’re experienced players. They know what they’re looking for.