FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — There are two schools of critical thought regarding the Patriots’ struggles on offense during New England’s 2-2 start to the season.

The first is the simple idea that Father Time caught up to 37-year-old quarterback Tom Brady and that he simply isn’t capable of carrying the New England offense the way he did for more than a decade.

The second is that the talent surrounding Brady — both in terms of pass protection up front and pass-catchers on the outside — simply isn’t very good.

Asking Bill Belichick about either theory for the early-season struggles might seem reasonable, right? The adversarial New England coach didn’t seem to feel that way this week.

Does Belichick think having a 37-year-old is …?

“We’re on to Cincinnati,” the coach responded, cutting off his questioner. “It’s nothing about the past, nothing about the future. Right now we’re preparing for Cincinnati.”

OK, so is the talent in New England good enough?

“We’re getting ready for Cincinnati,” Belichick said.

But has he done enough to help Brady? Does Brady have enough talent and protection around him?

“We’re going to game plan, do the best we can to be ready to go Sunday night — same as we always do,” Belichick said, ignoring the question. “Nothing’s changed.”

Brady himself was a bit less deflective when asked similarly if he had enough protection and talent around him on the offense.

“We’ll see,” Brady responded in a somewhat telling, indefinite response. “We’ll see here in a couple months where we’re at, but we’ve got a lot of football to play. We’re trying to find the things that we do well, and we’re trying to find the things that we don’t do well.

“Like I said, we’re 2-2. It’s not a great record. It could be worse, could be better. We could all probably play better. We probably could’ve played worse, too. We’ve just got to try to find ways to do a better job.”

What everyone does agree on and will talk about — Belichick as well as his players — is that the offense in New England just hasn’t been good enough through a month of games. The Patriots have the NFL’s 29th-ranked offense and 30th passing attack. The team that finished third in the league in points a year ago is 24th in that category.

The reason for the struggles is not something Belichick wants to address. Brady would only talk about the offense as a whole and not the things that he could do better.

“We’re not scoring enough points,” Brady said. “It’s not an individual sport. It’s a team sport. This isn’t like hitting home runs or playing golf and not making par. We’re all trying to do a better job. I think that’s the important thing is to understand the problems that we’re having, and you try to fix them.

“Like I said, I’ve been a part of a lot of teams that have found a way to grind through tough times and not really ride the emotions of one week or one loss or one win. It’s a long season, and we obviously didn’t play very well the other night, but we’re looking forward to getting out there again and trying to play better this week.”

Heading into a matchup with a 3-0 Bengals team coming off a bye and playing as well as anyone in the game through the first month, Brady certainly wasn’t looking to help the opposition diagnose the Patriots’ problems.

“It’s not like we’re going to come out and say all the things (we are doing wrong),” he said. “We’re going to try to let our opponents figure out the things that we’re not doing well, the things that we are doing well.

“It’s a long year, so we’ve got a lot of football to play. We’ve got a lot of high character guys in our locker room. We’ve got a lot of mentally tough guys. That’s what it takes. It’s not the time to tense up and call it a season.

“We’re 2-2. We’re tied for the best record in our division, not that that is a great feat by any stretch. But we’ll see what we’re made of as we continue to fight through these tough weeks, and hopefully it builds character and builds resiliency. And the mistakes that we made last week, we’ve got to try to figure out a way to improve on those things so that we can come out and play a great game this week because that’s what it’s going to take.”

NOTES: CB Brandon Browner was on the practice field for New England’s Wednesday indoor walkthrough, coming back from serving a four-game suspension. … WR Brian Tyms also returned after missing the first four games for a performance-enhancing-drug violation. … S Nate Ebner (finger) did not practice Wednesday. … OL Cameron Fleming (finger) did not practice. … Among those limited at practice were LB Jamie Collins (thigh), CB Alfonzo Dennard (shoulder), LB Dont’a Hightower (knee) and DE Chandler Jones (shoulder).