CLEVELAND (AP) — Tom Brady, looking razor-sharp at times and relatively rust-free after serving his four-game “Deflategate” suspension, passed for 406 yards and three touchdowns to Martellus Bennett in his hyped return and the New England Patriots thumped the Browns 33-13 Sunday.
Brady was back — much to the relief of teammates and New England fans everywhere — following a ban for his role in the scandal in which an NFL investigation found the Patriots under-inflated footballs in the 2015 AFC championship game.
Brady fought Commissioner Roger Goodell’s ruling for more than a year before he begrudgingly accepted his punishment.
Brady threw two short TD passes in the first half to Bennett before hooking up with his new teammate again on a 37-yarder to give the Patriots a 30-7 lead in the third quarter.
LeGarrette Blount added a 1-yard score for the Patriots.
Unfortunately for the Browns, a rebuilding season is spiraling out of control.
Cleveland has dropped seven straight and 14 of 15 going back to last season, and Browns coach Hue Jackson is running out of quarterbacks after rookie Cody Kessler was knocked out in the first half with rib and chest injuries.
Quarterback-turned-wide receiver Terrelle Pryor took two snaps before veteran Charlie Whitehurst replaced him, becoming the fifth quarterback to play for Cleveland in five games.
Whitehurst grimaced in pain and was nearly doubled over as he leaned on a stanchion outside Cleveland’s locker room while waiting to undergo X-rays.
Kessler, making his third start after Robert Griffin III (broken bone in his shoulder) and Josh McCown (broken collarbone) got hurt in the season’s first two weeks, injured his ribs and chest when he was hit hard in the first quarter on a backward pass that skipped out of the end zone and turned into a safety for New England.
Whitehurst took over in the second half, but hyperextended his right knee in the final minutes and hobbled to the sideline.
The veteran returned to the field to run out the final seconds, but his status for next week’s game at Tennessee remains unclear. Whitehurst says he expects he’ll be ready to play next weekend.