After an underwhelming season-opening effort against the Kansas City Chiefs that resulted a 42-27 Patriots loss, some (namely damn near anyone with a microphone on ESPN that “EMBRACES DEBATE) questioned if Tom Brady was on the downside of his career.

During Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints, Brady did something he had never done in his NFL career. The 40-year-old quarterback tossed three first quarter touchdown passes en route to the Patriots winning 36-20 over the winless New Orleans Saints.

Brady finished the day 30 of 39 for 447 yards with three touchdown passes. As a part of his day, the four-time Super Bowl MVP set the NFL record for most games with at least three touchdown passes and no interceptions.

Sunday marked the 52nd time Brady pulled the trick, which topped Peyton Manning’s 51 times in the process.

In other Brady-related news, his book “The TB12 Method” hits the shelves on Tuesday. As the lead up to the book’s release, Brady was asked during a CBS interview about his thoughts regarding Colin Kaepernick being on an NFL roster.

In total, Sunday proved to be a busy day for the face of the NFL. We’ll see if Sunday’s effort will be good enough to keep the Patriots trending upward moving forward.