Brady not happy about early departure by fans

Tom Brady said Wednesday he’s not happy that many New England Patriots fans left their home stadium before the end of the season opener.

The quarterback also said he doesn’t think New York Jets fans leave their home games early. The Patriots visit the Jets on Sunday at the New Meadowlands Stadium, which replaced Giants Stadium this season.

“It’s a tough place to play,” Brady said. “The road environment is very different than our friendly home crowd who, when I looked up, half the stadium was gone when we were up 21 points in the early fourth quarter, which I wasn’t so happy about.”

The Patriots beat the Cincinnati Bengals 38-24 after going ahead 31-3 when the second-half kickoff was returned for a touchdown and 38-17 on Brady’s 1-yard touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski with 7:41 left in the game The announced paid attendance was 68,756, the 173rd consecutive home sellout.

“I don’t think the Jets’ fans leave early,” Brady said. “They’re going to be loud the whole game. Communication is always an issue. We work on it a lot in practice. We worked on it during training camp quite a bit. Last year, we didn’t do a good job of it and that was painfully obvious to all of us. We’ve got to do a better job this year.”

The Patriots lost to the Jets 16-9 last year at Giants Stadium, also in the second game of the season. The Patriots beat the Jets 31-14 in Foxborough in the 10th game last year.