Tom Brady on Buccaneers' Win vs. Cowboys: 'The Marathon's Just Getting Started'

The NFL season is a marathon and not a sprint for championship contenders looking to play through January.

Nobody knows that better than Tom Brady, who released something of a hype video on Twitter while reflecting back on his team's season-opening win over the Dallas Cowboys and looking ahead to Week 2's game against the Atlanta Falcons.

"The marathon's just getting started," he said in the video. "We got a lot to improve on, I'm excited for this week. Let's go."

Brady may slow down at some point, but the 44-year-old looked like he was still in the middle of his prime in Thursday's 31-29 victory.

He went 32-of-50 passing for 379 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions while spreading the ball around to Tampa Bay's litany of weapons. Antonio Brown, Chris Godwin and Rob Gronkowski all caught touchdown passes with the latter catching two, and four different Buccaneers had at least five catches.

The seven-time Super Bowl champion showed the arm strength to fit passes through tight windows, a willingness to take what the defense gave him with short passes and the soft touch needed while floating deep balls over the back end of the defense.

The result was an offensive show that would have resulted in more points if Godwin didn't fumble inside the 5-yard line and Leonard Fournette didn't let a wide-open screen pass hit him on the hands and bounce in the air for an interception.

Perhaps the most notable development from Thursday's game is that Tampa Bay once again looks like Super Bowl contenders.

It brought back all of the primary playmakers from last season's championship team and had no trouble moving the ball down the field against a fellow NFC contender.

Now Brady gets to play a divisional game against a Falcons squad that just lost its Week 1 game to the Philadelphia Eagles by 26 points. It would be stunning if the result was anything but a straightforward Buccaneers win.