With New Weapons Galore, Tom Brady and the Patriots Are Scary Again

More than ever, the NFL is an offense-driven league. Points are being scored at a record pace. Fans are being dazzled every week by offensive buzz saws in Kansas City and Los Angeles.

If the first game of Week 5 is any indication, another buzz saw is just getting up to speed. It has a deep receiving corps with both vertical threats and chain-movers. A talented one-two punch at tailback. One of the league's most dominant tight ends.

And a five-time Super Bowl champion and three-time NFL MVP at the controls.

The New England Patriots have long had few problems with moving the ball or scoring points. Tom Brady threw for 505 yards and three touchdowns in Super Bowl LII—which was a loss.

But when the Patriots beat the Indianapolis Colts 38-24 on Thursday night at Gillette Stadium, we witnessed what may have been the first steps from an offense as good as any they've fielded since their undefeated 2007 regular season.

In the first half, it was old-home week. The first pass on the first drive was to slot receiver extraordinaire Julian Edelman, who was making his 2018 debut after he served a four-game suspension for violating the league's performance-enhancing drug policy.

Charles Krupa/Associated Press

There were also the obligatory throws to tight end and laboratory experiment Rob Gronkowski, but the offensive fulcrum in the first half was Super Bowl LI hero James White. An undermanned, tired Colts defense had no answer for him. The Patriots essentially moved the ball at will, and at intermission they were cruising 24-3.

Had things stayed that way, it would have been just another ho-hum thrashing of an inferior opponent by the Patriots. Business as usual in Foxborough.

But a couple of deflections that turned into Brady interceptions allowed the Colts to get back into the game at 24-17.

That's when things got interesting.

With about nine minutes left to play and the Patriots driving, Brady dropped back to pass. He waited. Then waited some more. Ate some sort of TB12 sprout sandwich. And then uncorked a jump ball toward the end zone…

Where wide receiver Josh Gordon plucked it out of the air for a touchdown.

There's been no shortage of discussion about what Gordon could bring to the offense from the moment the Patriots acquired him from the Cleveland Browns on September 18. He demonstrated it in a single play: the ability to win 50-50 balls and hurt teams over the top that no other receiver on New England's roster has.

The highlights weren't over. After an Indianapolis interception gave New England the ball back, the Pats intended to chew some clock by running rookie tailback Sony Michel off-tackle.

Michel had other ideas—like punching it in for a second straight 34-yard score that put the game out of reach.

All told, it was a 439-yard offensive explosion in which a handful of players made substantial contributions.

Michel finished with 110 total yards and that score. Edelman's first game since New England's last Super Bowl victory resulted in seven catches for 57 yards. White caught 10 passes and found the end zone. Gordon averaged 25 yards a catch. Gronkowski caught six passes for 75 yards.

And then there's Brady, who threw for 341 yards and three touchdowns and had a rushing score.

The scary part? Gronkowski told the NFL Network's postgame show that the new-look New England offense is only getting started,

"Just having Edelman come back in this past Monday; he brought the juice," Gronkowski said. "He brings the juice to the locker room. And that's what we needed...having Julian underneath. Having Josh Gordon out there. We're just coming together. We're just starting to click now. We just gotta keep working hard. Going out to the practice field to develop chemistry with each other and bring it out to the game."

Charles Krupa/Associated Press

Gronk's right. The team needed juice. In consecutive losses to Jacksonville and Detroit, New England's offense looked listless and predictable. Opponents were bracketing Gronkowski and collapsing on White.

The last two games have been a different story, though. A horror story for opposing defensive coordinators.

The Patriots can hurt you in too many ways. Play a soft zone, and Brady will happily chew you to pieces with short passes to White and Edelman—just as the team did in the first half against Indy. Get aggressive against the short stuff, and it's single coverage for Gordon and Chris Hogan (remember him?).

That isn't a good way to defend Gordon. As he showed Thursday, sometimes even when he's covered, he isn't covered.

And now, as if all that isn't bad enough, Michel is an emerging talent who can gash teams on the ground.

There's no way to defend all those weapons at once. And the Patriots have a decision-maker behind center who just so happens to be arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history.

Think he's going to find the weak spot? Exploit the area you've left vulnerable?

Yeah. Me too.

Steven Senne/Associated Press

This isn't to say the Patriots are a juggernaut destined to play in yet another Super Bowl. The Chiefs and Jaguars will still have much to say about that. And a New England defense that surrendered 439 total yards to the Colts remains an issue.

But the Kansas City defense makes New England's bunch look like Jacksonville's stout unit. And the Jaguars have been inconsistent on offense. Never mind that Blake Bortles and Patrick Mahomes aren't Tom Brady, who threw his 500th career touchdown pass in Thursday's win.

After those losses to the Jags and Lions, there were the proclamations and questions that come every time the Pats stumble early in the year. The dynasty is dead. What's wrong in New England? All that good stuff.

Given what we saw against the Colts, this year's stumble is no different from the rest—in that it wasn't as severe as we thought and quite temporary. The Patriots have done what the Patriots always do: They've gotten up off the mat and gone back to the business of winning football games.

This year, they've done so with an offense that combines old talent and new. Weapons at every level. Conducted by one of the best to ever do what he does.

What's wrong with the Patriots, on offense at least, is nothing.

And that's terrifying for the rest of the NFL.