Perfect Patriots stop Bengals, 34-13

CINCINNATI -- Tom Brady had three more touchdown passes. Sammy Morris had one of his best games. The New England defense had its way.

Expect anything less? The Patriots don’t.

The Patriots remained one of the NFL’s four unbeaten teams Monday night by beating the Cincinnati Bengals, 34-13, with a performance that showed their versatility.

“I think we’re doing more as an offense,” said Morris, who ran for 117 yards -- the second-best total of his career -- and a touchdown. “We just want to keep it going.”

New England (4-0) is off to its best start since 2004, when it won the Super Bowl for the third time in four seasons. An offense energized by the addition of receivers Randy Moss, Donte’ Stallworth and Wes Welker showed it can grind it out too.

Cincinnati’s performance was so maddening that Coach Marvin Lewis screamed at his players in the locker room for several minutes.

“If you don’t want to be on this team, please don’t show up!” Lewis said, yelling so loud that reporters outside could hear.

Cincinnati (1-3) was missing middle linebackers Ahmad Brooks and Caleb Miller, leaving a big hole in one of the league’s worst defenses. When Lemar Marshall hurt an Achilles’ tendon in the first quarter, the Bengals moved rookie safety Chinedum Ndukwe into a linebacker’s spot. The Patriots had more linebackers in their offense on goal-line plays than the Bengals had in their defense on many plays. And one of them -- Mike Vrabel -- caught a one-yard touchdown pass in a Super Bowl flashback.

Missing their top runner didn’t slow the Patriots.

Morris was impressive in replacing Laurence Maroney, who was sidelined because of a strained groin.

Brady completed 25 of 32 passes for 231 yards, including touchdown passes of seven and 14 yards to Moss.

Moss, who declined to talk to reporters, had nine catches for 102 yards. He’s the first player in NFL history to have 100 yards in receptions in each of his first four games with a new team.

Brady leads the league with 13 touchdown passes, his best total in any four-game span of his career.

The NFL’s most efficient passer made an uncharacteristically sloppy mistake, forcing a third-down throw for only his second interception of the season. That set up Carson Palmer’s one-yard touchdown pass to T.J. Houshmandzadeh. That’s the only one the Bengals would get.

Palmer had words with Chad Johnson when the Pro Bowl receiver ran a different route than he expected, resulting in Asante Samuel’s interception near the goal line late in the first half. They had more words on the sideline, and Johnson was still jawing at the Pro Bowl’s most valuable player as they left the field at halftime.

“I made a mistake,” said Palmer, who completed 21 of 35 passes for 234 yards, with two interceptions. “I got on Chad, but I made a mistake. I lost my cool. I threw a ball I shouldn’t have thrown.”