Bengals Bungle It

The New England Patriots quieted their critics and kicked off their season with an upset win over the Cincinnati Bengals.

It was a balanced effort for the Patriots in Sunday’s 16-10 victory. Veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett took care of the football, running back Rhamondre Stevenson rumbled for 120 yards and a touchdown, the defense made it a long day for Bengals QB Joe Burrow, and the special teams unit came up big with multiple key plays.

If you ask NBC Sports Boston’s Patriots insider Tom E. Curran, the performance was reminiscent of the good ol’ days in New England.

“You’ve got a new era of Patriots football that actually looks a lot, in terms of winning, like the old era of Patriots football,” Curran said on Patriots Postgame Live. “You’ve got special teams, defense, extremely efficient offense, actually making sure that you’re managing the game and playing to your strengths, masking your weaknesses.

“To me, I look at this Patriots team and a lot of what Jerod Mayo and these Patriots were able to accomplish were what the best of Bill Belichick teams accomplished for 25 years.”

Brissett and the Patriots didn’t light up the box score, but they didn’t have to. They checked off all three of former Pats QB Brian Hoyer’s “keys to victory” from Wednesday’s episode of The Gameplan.

“I said there’s three keys to victory: protect the football, run the football, and handle the defensive front,” Hoyer said. “And this offensive line, they deserve a pat on the back. Everyone was talking about them, ‘They’re gonna be a disaster.’ … But come out, run the football, set the tone, and carry them the rest of the way.”

The Patriots offensive line was a glaring issue throughout training camp and the preseason. It was flagged for 10 penalties during the preseason finale vs. Washington and to make matters worse, starting left guard Sidy Sow was ruled out for Sunday’s game due to injury.

The unit stepped up to deliver a solid performance in Cincinnati, especially in the running game. On the defensive side, second-year edge rusher Keion White led an admirable effort with 2.5 sacks.

On special teams, long-snapper Joe Cardona forced a fumble on a Bengals punt return. Kicker Joey Slye drilled three field goals.

“The offensive line was great. So was the defensive line,” former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson said. “The special teams was excellent, coverage teams were great, field goal kicking was great. I love the play-calling on offense. I thought it got a little conservative there in the second half but nonetheless … They had a 12-play drive, a 14-play drive, a 12-play drive, and then at the end there they’re able to run out the clock and end the game.

“So just really impressive considering what we all thought we were gonna see from this offensive line. The running game was excellent. The pass game was OK. Jacoby Brissett… not overly impressive, but he didn’t turn the ball over. And that’s what we want to see out of him is just take care of the football, do what you gotta do. And I just thought this was a great win for the Patriots.”