Brady & Co. dominate
MEXICO CITY» The chants of “Brady! Brady!” started as soon as the New England Patriots got their first third-down stop, and the fevered fans at Azteca Stadium awaited Tom Brady’s first appearance in Mexico.
The chants kept up for most of the day as Brady felt at home in a new environment.
Brady threw for 339 yards and three touchdowns to the delight of an adoring crowd, and the Patriots beat the Oakland Raiders 33-8 on Sunday.
“That was very much a surprise, especially seeing some of last year’s game, they were very pro-Raider,” Brady said.
Brady completed his first 12 passes and picked apart Oakland’s suspect defense to chants from an amped-up crowd at Azteca Stadium. The large contingent of Patriots fans in the well-divided crowd for a Raiders “home” game had plenty to cheer about as New England dominated.
After winning their debut trip to Mexico City last year against Houston, the Raiders were completely overmatched in their return. The offense failed to score until Derek Carr threw a pass to Amari Cooper in the fourth quarter with Oakland trailing by 30 points.
“They don’t do anything special; they just do everything right,” Carr said. “You sit there and in the first half they don’t have any turnovers, I don’t think they had a penalty, and they do the little things right.”
The defense was victimized by short passes by Brady and then beaten on a 64yard score to Brandin Cooks on the third play of the second half that gave New England a 24-0 lead.
“It was just a fiesta all over the field,” Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski said.
There were loud cheers at the famed stadium for both teams from the crowd of 77,357 fans and a notable buzz throughout the early portions. Much was made leading up to the game about the differing approaches to playing in an elevation of 7,200 feet above sea level. The Patriots spent the week at the Air Force Academy practicing at an elevation of 6,621 feet, while the Raiders stayed home and opted to limit their time at high altitude.