FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The New England Patriots have used an us-against-the-world mentality many times in the Bill Belichick era.

Guys like Willie McGinest, Tedy Bruschi and Rodney Harrison were masters of motivating the Patriots over the years by convincing them, along with Belichick, that no one outside the Gillette Stadium locker room believes in them.

Following an embarrassing 41-14 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football in Week 4, the us-against-the-world attitude was clearly back in New England heading into Sunday night’ game against the previously unbeaten Cincinnati Bengals.

This time, though, unlike during the earlier days in New England’s decade-plus run of success, there really were a lot of doubters on the outside.

The 2-2 start, the blowout loss, the failures to find consistency on either side of the ball through a month of games led to lots of outside noise, even an ESPN article on the day of the Bengals game stating that Tom Brady was “uncomfortable” with many recent changes in New England and might no longer want to finish his career with the team.

With all that as a theatrical backdrop, Belichick’s team did what his veteran-led predecessors might have, beat the bag out of the Bengals.

New England (3-2) took it to the visitors from Cincinnati (3-1) to forge a 14-0 first-quarter lead, 20-3 halftime advantage and cruise to the 43-17 rout.

In doing, so there was as much energy an emotion from a New England team as has been evident in quite some time.

“When you had the result that we had Monday night as a team, I think everybody rallied around each other,” Belichick said a day after his team’s convincing win.

“I mean, who else is there to rally around? That’s all we have: guys that can go out there and play and make a difference. Nobody else is going to make any plays unless we go out and make them ourselves. Of course they stuck together as a team and supported each other. That’s what any team should do.”

New England also executed like it hadn’t to date.

The offensive line gave Brady far more time than through the first month. He responded by passing for 292 yards and two touchdowns for a 110.7 rating, including nearly 200 yards to his tight end duo of Rob Gronkowski (100 yards and a score) and Tim Wright (85 yards and a score).

The running game also did more than its part, tallying 220 yards on 46 attempts including 27 for 113 and a touchdown by Stevan Ridley.

In a place where the Belichickian motto is to ignore the noise, the Patriots clearly heard their doubters last week and responded.

“It’s hard to be oblivious to things,” Brady admitted. “We all have TVs or the internet or the questions I get, and the emails that I get from people who are concerned. I’m always emailing them back like, ‘Nobody died. It’s just a loss.’

“I think we’ve always done a great job putting losses behind us quickly and trying to move forward. It doesn’t always go right. In football season, you don’t always go undefeated every year. You’re trying to build something; we’re trying to build something that is going to be tough to compete with.

“So when we play like we played tonight, it still wasn’t perfect and there are still a lot of things we could do better and we’re going to work at it. We always do that. We come in and we talk about things we didn’t do well and things we did well and things we need to build on. Our coaches do a great job of that. We’ve got a great group.”

On a night when he became only the sixth player in history to surpass 50,000 yards passing, Brady was showered in support. The Gillette Stadium crowd unleashed loud, consistent “Bra-dy!” chants throughout the night.

And his teammates were more than behind their clear franchise leader.

“I told my brother before we came to the game, ‘I’m going to make 12 look like Tom Brady again today, baby!'” Gronkowski said excitedly in the aftermath of the win. “And I went out there with my teammates and we made Tom Brady look like Tom Brady after you guys were criticizing him all week, the fans, everything.

“It feels so good. He’s such a leader. He went over 50,000 yards today. He’s an unbelievable player, and I’m so glad to play with him.”

One win may not wipe out all that ailed the Patriots through a month of football. But blowing out the Bengals team that many thought was playing as good a football as any coming off a bye week certainly sends a message to anyone who doubted the Patriots and Brady over the last week.

REPORT CARD VS. Bengals

PASSING OFFENSE: B-plus — The protection, accuracy and playmaking ability of the Patriots passing attack took a major step forward against the Bengals. While it still wasn’t nearly perfect, and faded a bit as the game went on,– Tom Brady was closer to what has become expected. Brady led New England to two opening scoring drives, actually avoiding a three-and-out opening possession for the first time this season. Brady was sacked only twice and seemed much more comfortable in the pocket, even making quick throws, on the way to completing 23 of 35 passes for 292 yards with two touchdowns, for a season-best 110.7 rating. Rob Gronkowski was his top target, catching six passes for 100 yards and a score, while fellow tight end Tim Wright chipped in with five catches for 85 yards and another score as the Patriots took advantage of some Bengals injuries at linebacker. Brady spread the ball around to eight players and al though he still missed a few easy throws, No. 12 and the passing attack made improvements against what is supposed to be a solid Cincy defense.

RUSHING OFFENSE: A-minus -– Stevan Ridley’s first two carries of the game, the second and third plays from scrimmage overall, went for nine and seven yards, respectively. It was an impressive start for a New England ground game that has been trying to establish itself all season. From there on, New England got the yards it needed on the ground all night. Tom Brady picked up a fourth-and-1. Ridley capped the opening drive with a touchdown. Shane Vereen chipped in with a few nice change-of-pace runs. By night’s end, the Patriots had churned out 46 attempts for 220 yards (4.8 average). Ridley led the way with 27 carries for 113 yards, including a late 43-yard rumble down the left sideline that was the longest run of his career. Vereen added 90 yards on his nine carries. Give the offensive line credit, since rookie Bryan Stork has taken over at center there seems to have been a bit more room to run, as the rest of the veteran group begins to play up to its potential, even against a pretty physical Bengals front.

PASS DEFENSE: B — Fans and media alike have been begging for Bill Belichick to allow Darrelle Revis to match up with opponents’ top targets. That was the plan against A.J. Green and the Bengals and it worked. With Revis holding top weapon Green to only two catches for 19 yards, Andy Dalton was limited to 63 yards passing in the first half as the Patriots built a 17-point lead. It wasn’t only Revis, as New England played man-to-man across the board and while Dalton missed a couple chances for big plays, the Patriots didn’t allow a completion longer than 19 yards in the first half. Dalton threw a couple second-half touchdowns, taking advantage of injuries to safety Devin McCourty and a temporary sidelining of Revis, but really Patriots pass defense controlled the bulk of the game through the air. That was true even though the front got little pressure on Dalton, although Chris Jones did notch the first sack allowed by Cincinnati in four games this season. The pass rush needed to become far more relevant and consistent, but when Revis is on an island, the New England coverage looks like it could be impressive as the year wears on.

RUSH DEFENSE: B — The Patriots run defense has been suspect this season, whether getting exposed by the Dolphins and Chiefs, and simply getting by against the Vikings and Raiders. The Bengals have never been shy about admitting they want to start everything they do on offense by running. The Patriots fought to a draw early on against the Bengals runners and then the score kept Cincy from remaining balanced. The Bengals first two carries of the day were for one yard and no gain. That was followed by a 13-yarder and five-yarder on Cincinnati’s opening drive to a missed field goal. At the end of the day, the Bengals were only able to accumulate 18 carries for a respectable 79 yards (4.4 average). Vince Wilfork remains the only proven run stuffer up front for New England. Casey Walker, signed a week ago from the Panthers practice squad saw his first action and had a nice tackle for a loss. It wasn’t a dominant effort, but the Patriots never really let Cincy control the game on the ground early to establish the basis of their offense.

SPECIAL TEAMS: C-plus — Stephen Gostkowski continues to impress, improving to 13 for 13 this season by hitting all five of his field goal attempts (48, 19, 23, 47, 35) against the Bengals. He also had three touchbacks on kickoffs, while Bengals returner Brandon Tate chose to take five more out of the end zone but averaged only 20.1 yards per return. New England’s punting wasn’t as impressive, as Ryan Allen ended up with a net of only 22.7 yards thanks to a 47-yard punt return by Adam Jones to help set up one of Cincy’s touchdowns. The Patriots didn’t get much in their own return game. Brandon Bolden made a bit play in coverage, though, forcing a fumble by Tate. That big play was balanced out by a bad penalty on Jamie Collins on a punt return, when the linebacker tackled Tate even after he had called for a fair catch. Gostkowski remains money, but the rest of the special teams that have been solid most of the year could clean some things up after the win.

COACHING: B — New England’s coaches faced a tough challenge on a short week coming off an ugly loss and responded by getting their team ready for the Bengals. Bill Belichick and Co. seemed to settled things down a bit on offense, using less personnel combinations while balancing out the pass and the run. The offensive line settled in with Ryan Wendell making the start at right guard and the blocking was better by Dave DeGuglielmo’s much-maligned group up front. Defensively, the decision to use Revis in man coverage on Green seemed obvious, and New England didn’t over-think things. While the bulk of the world was doubting New England, Belichick seemed to push the right buttons to get his time unified and fired up in the face of early season adversity. The schemes worked. The motivation worked. And Marvin Lewis’ team just couldn’t answer the challenge in prime time on the road in Foxborough.