Film Room: How Tom Brady restored his confidence in Patriots win over Bengals

It may come as a surprise to some, but the recent concern over the play of Tom Brady had less to do with him being able to get it done physically, and more if he could mentally.

The 37-year-old quarterback looked overwhelmed following a pick-6 in Week 4 against the Kansas City Chiefs that led to his removal from the game. He sat alone on the New England Patriots bench with his head down, dejected, the dark blue stripes on his jersey seemingly symbolizing his emotional state.

He had been sacked twice and hurried 10 times by the Chiefs’ dominating front seven. He didn’t trust the offensive line to protect him, nor did he trust his receivers to catch his passes, which fluttered all over the field. He wasn’t sure of what he was seeing from the defense, and that’s what was most troubling.

Brady has always torched defenses with his mind. He knew where he wanted to go with the ball in Thursday meetings, when opposing defenses were still trying to figure out their own game plan for Sunday. He identified weaknesses and repeatedly exposed them. If a linebacker couldn’t run, Brady checked to simple routes in the flat for his running back to run to and catch dump-offs. He’d made a Hall of Fame career off making checks into advantageous plays and now he was struggling to. Until Week 5 that is.

An underdog at home, Brady and the Patriots offense opened up the game against the Cincinnati Bengals doing what they did best.

On the first play, Brady stared at the running back’s belly to sell a handoff after the snap. He suddenly whipped his head around, scanned the underneath coverage when he hit the top of the drop and looked to the linebackers. They were the weakness that could be exploited, and it showed.

The middle linebacker stood on his toes trying to read the backfield flow, while the outside linebackers squatted to see through running lanes that didn’t exist. Past them, two Patriots receivers ran vertical routes.

One of the receivers was Brandon LaFell, who signed with the team in the offseason. LaFell stemmed his route inside the numbers to the left and pushed the near safety deeper, like he was running a go-route. As the safety ran deep, the hole in middle of the field widened. The linebackers were still in no-man’s land, recovering after reading the backfield for too long.

Brady bounced in the pocket and threw a laser over their heads and toward LaFell, who was still getting out of his break. When he turned around, the strike hit him in between the numbers for 20 yards, dropping him to the ground in between the outside cornerback and near safety.

The throw fired Brady up, which in turn fired up his teammates. He marched down the field and pointed at LaFell, who jawed with the cornerback.

One drive later, Brady exposed the Bengals linebackers again from a sturdy pocket. From shotgun, Brady took a quick drop on third-and-8 and looked to tight end Rob Gronkowski. The two hadn’t been on the same page in the first four weeks because Gronkowski wasn’t playing many snaps - he was still recovering from a torn ACL - but they reconnected here.

Gronkowski ran for eight yards and leaned outside to cut off of his surgically-repaired right leg. When he started to cut, Brady comfortably threw the ball five yards in front of where Gronkowski was.

Gronkowski separated from a linebacker and flattened out his route by the first-down marker, before extending his heavily-wrapped arms to catch the pass. He turned downfield and broke the linebacker’s diving tackle, running until he was forced out of bounds. It was a gain of 27 yards, and history for Brady - he became only the sixth quarterback to surpass 50,000 career passing yards, reminding critics that he still knew how to pick apart a defense.

There was opportunity to expose the Bengals defence in this game because they were missing their top linebacker, Vontaze Burfict. The Bengals tried to make up for it by being aggressive and playing downhill, seemingly sitting on the Patriots’ short routes. They chose not to deepen their landmarks and carry pass catchers through the seam, which left them susceptible to play action. Brady took advantage and registered a 141.3 passer rating on play action in the game, per Pro Football Focus.

Nearly halfway through the third quarter, Brady faked a handoff from shotgun and looked to his left. LaFell and tight end Tim Wright - who came from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers via a preseason trade - faked blocks while a receiver ran a flat route, setting up what looked to be a screen play.

Brady pump-faked toward the receiver and stared him down, which caused a Bengals linebacker to crash hard from the middle of the field. He then looked to the 40-yard line, where Wright ran a vertical route, and lofted a pass over the linebacker. Wright jumped to catch the pass and gained 25 yards. Afterward, Brady pointed at Wright and nodded like a point guard assisting on a score.

With every throw, Brady's confidence came back. He grew more emotional with each one, too, and picked apart the Bengals underneath coverage, going 12 for 16 for 209 yards and two touchdowns in the short and intermediate zones, per Pro Football Focus. As the game went on, Bengals linebackers didn’t want anything to do with him or his weapons.

In the third quarter, he took a short drop from shotgun and looked to his right from a U-shaped pocket. A running back ran a flat route and drew the attention of a linebacker. This was the ideal matchup on second-and-10, as it could possibly set up a third-and-short. But when the running back widened, not only did one linebacker run with him, but a second did too.

It was a blown coverage. There wasn’t anyone covering in the middle of the field, where the 6-foot-6, 265-pound Gronkowski was wide open. Brady hit him on the left shoulder. More than five yards later, Gronkowski ran through a low tackle and scored a 16-yard touchdown.

Following the score, Brady jogged to the bench and sat among his teammates with a smile and his head held high.