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Tom Brady is off to one of the best four-game starts to a season we have ever seen. Usually in this space wed explore exactly what Brady is doing well from a QBR perspective, but when that answer is just about everything, we need to take a different approach. Instead, lets put Bradys first four games into context: Since returning from his four-game suspension in Week 5, Brady has had the highest weekly Total QBR three times -- nobody else has led a week more than once so far in 2016.Historically, only Aaron Rodgers in 2011 has managed to be a weekly Total QBR leader on three occasions through Week 8. Rodgers actually did it three times in the first six weeks of that season. Impressive, but it doesnt beat Brady doing it three times in four games.What about putting up a 90+ QBR figure three times in a players first four games to start a season? Only Peyton Manning in his 55 touchdown campaign of 2013 can match that start.There is some luck involved in leading a week, as quarterbacks dont have control over how others around the league perform. But this isnt a case of Brady playing in a highly efficient manner on a small number of plays. Using our Points Added metric, which measures the number of points a quarterback has added to his team in comparison to the hypothetical average quarterback, given the same number of plays, nobody is close to Brady since his return.Even when we extend out to capture the first four weeks of the season when Brady was suspended, only Matt Ryan (35.8 points added) has added more points to his team, relative to an average QB, than Brady.To put this number into some context, it comes out to just over 7.5 points per game, which would be by far be the highest per-game number since 2006, the first year we recorded QBR. If Brady could somehow maintain this lofty pace, hed end up with 90.5 points added, which would rank second behind Bradys own historic 2007 season, where he played in all 16 games and ended with 96.2 points added.The road aheadThere are a few challenges on the Patriots remaining schedule, as they host Seattle (seventh-best opponent QBR allowed) in Week 10 and are on the road against Denver (ninth-best), but outside of that, they play a fairly easy remaining set of defenses, including the Jets (27th) twice, the 49ers (22nd) and the Rams (20th).Those circumstances should give Brady a chance challenge his already lofty QBR standards. A look at his week-by-week numbers to date in 2016.Darren Woodson Jersey . Detroit and Boston are deadlocked, 1-1, and Tigers manager Jim Leyland could be forgiven if he was caught rationalizing instead of dissecting how his club could blow a 5-1 lead late in Game 2. Robert Newhouse Cowboys Jersey . Just as Montreal was settling into the first full working week of a new year, the Impact announced the appointment of their new head coach. http://www.shoptheofficialcowboys.com/Elite-Leighton-Vander-Esch-Cowboys-Jersey/ . What general manager Dave Nonis called "short and productive" negotiations ended with Kessel signing a US$64-million, eight-year contract on Tuesday. Randall Cobb Cowboys Jersey . He just needed to be his best twisting, turning acrobatic self. "I didnt need to be anybody else, I just needed to be myself and be aggressive," said Burks, who scored a career-high 34 points to spark the Utah Jazz to a 118-103 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Monday night. Tony Pollard Jersey . "Hes going to have hip surgery on Jan. 7, and hell be expected to rehabilitate for four to six months beyond that," Canucks general manager Mike Gillis said Friday in an interview.Just as a starving man probably doesnt skip pudding, England werent going to miss out on the feast offered to them in Rajkot.On the sort of pitch batsmen want to whisk to Paris for a weekend of romance, England took the opportunity to recover from the privations of Dhaka with a gluttonous display.It wasnt just the pitch, either. India put down at least five catchable chances, fumbled a run-out opportunity and, within the first two overs of the second day, had shepherded two balls to the boundary. By early afternoon Virat Kohli looked murderous and the bowlers - who generally deserved much better - looked bewildered. Really, India has been a marvellous host. Some of this fielding would have drawn chuckles from the Pakistan side at the 2015 World Cup.But it would be a mistake not to credit England. For three men to score centuries in an innings - the first time England have done so since defeating Sri Lanka in Cardiff in 2011 and the first time they have done so in India since 1961 - in a land where no visiting player has managed one once since 2013 deserves praise. As does becoming the first visiting team to make 500 in India since they did it in Kolkata in 2012.But most of all, England made it clear - to themselves as much as anyone - they were not going to be intimidated by spin. Of course confidence was knocked by the Dhaka debacle. Of course there was some trepidation about facing the No.1 Test bowler at home. But they proved to themselves - and to India - that the last innings in Bangladesh was something of an aberration and that they had learned from the experience. Whether it leads to a win or not, England may look back on this first innings of this series as a psychological victory.It is true that conditions later in the series - perhaps later in the game - will grow tougher. But Englands batsmen will face them boosted by the knowledge of this success. Instead of the doubts and demons that could have been planted by Dhaka, they face the next challenges with confidence high. These things matter.It is entirely typical of this new England that they took a bold response to their latest challenge. While previous England sides might have responded to such setbacks with a grimly determined display of defence - think of Abu Dhabi in 2012, when Englands openers took 15 overs for their first 21 runs and the side was bowled out for 72 in the fourth innings - England took every opportunity to attack Indias spinners.It wasnt just the fours and sixes. It was the general attitude that oozed a refusal to be intimidated. It was using the crease, using their feet, pushing the singles and being prepared to hit over the top. We didnt just prod around, Moeen Ali said. We used our feet and took the attacking option.R Ashwin, who went into the game rated the worlds best Test bowler and with a daunting recent record - he averaged 19.86 in Tests this year before this series - conceded more runs in an innings than at any time since Kolkata in 2012. Jonny Bairstow treated Amit Mishra so harshly it almost amounted to bullying.Most of all, though, this was Ben Stokes day. Boosted by his greatly improved defence against spin - a feature that was first witnessed in Chittagong - Stokes now has the luxury of only needing to attack on merit. And when conditions are this favourable, when you have as many attacking options and as much strength as him, there is merit in much. His batting average this year is now 57.25 and his bowling average 19.80. It feels like a genuine breakthrough.That credit for his success - and that of Moeen - extends beyond the team, too. It belongs, in part, to the management and selectors who have stuck with the pair through some lean times and have found a way to coax the best out of their very different talents and characters.The key to getting the best out of both of them was making them feel valued. So, even when Stokes was injured, he was invited to spend time in the dressing room.dddddddddddd And every time a member of the management has been asked about potential future leaders, Stokes has been mentioned. On days when he was dismissed playing horrid strokes - and there have been a few (Grenada springs to mind) - the management has been careful not to criticise him in public and continued to praise his aggressive style while working quietly on adding some sophistication to his game.It is probably no coincidence that all three of Stokes previous Test innings against India were ducks and that they were made batting at No. 8 or No.9. Given the responsibility of batting at No. 6, given the ostentatious vote of confidence in his ability, he has responded with increasingly polished and mature performances. He now averages 41.88 in the position. Every day, in every way, the management has helped develop his talent while encouraging his responsibility. You wonder how good the likes of Graeme Hick or Mark Ramprakash might have been had they benefited from such management.It is a similar story with Moeen. Largely wasted at No. 8, he had started to lose belief in himself as a batsman. He talked of feeling embarrassed with some of the shots he played and started to bat like a useful tail-ender (he averaged 28.06 in the position) rather than the richly talented thoroughbred he had always been previously.In a previous age, the selectors would have given up on him. Instead they moved him to No. 7 for the English summer and he responded with two centuries. This, his third Test century in six months, giving him an average of 45.86 batting at Nos. 5, 6 or 7 in Test cricket.I used to go out and almost give my wicket away sometimes, he said. But the last few months, I have tried to bat like a No. 3 and really taken the responsibility of a batsman.Its very important Ben and I feel very important to the team. And when I was batting at No. 7 or 8, I forgot the time I need to bat. I forgot about scoring singles and proper batting mentality.Since Ive come to No.5, I feel like I can go back to that now and try to bat a long time. Its a change of mentality. My aim is to bat 200 balls, and if I do that Ill score a hundred. I feel Ive got my batting back to where I want it to be.I enjoy those kind of situations when were struggling a little bit. I feel it brings out the best in me. Obviously it doesnt always come off, but it gets me into the zone. If there is any criticism of the England performance - and any complaint must sound like a spoiled child at Christmas demanding a pony even as they unwrap their new bicycle - you do wonder if they might look back and regret not keeping India in the field for another session. There was a period after lunch when India were visibly flagging under a mercilessly hot sun (at one stage a pigeon fainted in the press box and fell to a feathery end in a fan, though some suggested its broken left wing was a comment on American politics) and England, instead of grinding out a total of 600, opted to thrash runs as quickly as possible. As a result, Bairstow and Adil Rashid fell to selfless but soft dismissals and India had a chance to bat after tea.Usually that would be a perfectly reasonable tactic. But on this surface? It remains good for batsmen for now. But there were just a few signs - Moeen turned two balls prodigiously - that it will grow far more difficult. It might, therefore, have made sense to keep Indias batsmen from using it until it had deteriorated a little more. First-innings runs will surely be far easier to score than second innings.But that is a minor quibble at the end of an excellent couple of days for England. After the way the Bangladesh tour ended, they could hardly have dreamed of better. ' ' '