I know Tom Brady and the Patriots looked great Sunday in their 38-24 victory over the Bengals, but let’s hold off on the 2007 comparisons for right now. I did one “#Patriots” search on Twitter following the game and I would have had to use a calculator to count the number of times I saw a reference to New England’s ’07 season.
Uh, the regular season that is. No fan wants to bring up how that season ended for the Pats.
Before we crown the Patriots 2010 AFC Super Bowl representatives, let’s be realistic. The Cincinnati defense they faced today was downright atrocious.
As expected, the Bengals had zero pass rush and that’s an area that will be a problem for them all season unless someone steps up. Their front four was swallowed whole by New England’s offensive line and didn’t impact the game whatsoever.
Defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer’s playcalling was also uninspiring. He was way too predictable when drumming up blitzes, which allowed Tom Brady to recognize where the pressure was coming from and either check off to another player or complete crossing patterns over the middle.
The end result was the Bengals getting gashed for 376 total yards, including 258 passing and 118 rushing. Believe it or not, Cincinnati’s offense bettered those numbers (428 total, 341 passing, 87 rushing), but it didn’t matter once the Pats took a 31-3 lead early in the third quarter and was on cruise control from there on out.
For a team that is expected to compete for a division crown this year, this was a highly unimpressive start for the Bengals.
