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The Tom Brady Scorched Earth Tour has officially started. 

Instead of playing like a man who was distracted by Deflategate the entire offseason, Brady played like a man possessed in the Patriots' 28-21 win over the Steelers in Thursday night's 2015 NFL opener at Gillette Stadium.

Exactly one week after having his four-game suspension overturned, Brady threw for 288 yards and four touchdowns in the win.

The Patriots quarterback was in "destroy mode" from the moment he first stepped on the field before the game. 

Brady got off to a hot start against the Steelers and he never cooled off.

At one point in the game, the Super Bowl XLIX MVP completed 19 straight passes, a ridiculous streak that was only three off the NFL single-game record of 22. 

The Steelers had no answer for Brady, who completed passes to seven different receivers, including Rob Gronkowski, who caught three of Brady's four touchdown passes. 

Brady and Gronk were on the same page all night, which is probably bad news for every team left on the Patriots schedule. 

The win over the Steelers gave Brady his 161st career win with the Patriots, breaking Brett Favre's NFL record for most wins with one team. Favre won 160 games as a starter with the Packers.  

Tom Brady was unstoppable against the Steelers. (USATSI)
Tom Brady was unstoppable against the Steelers. (USATSI)

Here are nine more takeaways from Thursday's game.

2. Gronk goes wild. The Steelers had a plan to stop Gronk going into Thursday's game, but unfortunately for them, that plan didn't work. At all. 

Pittsburgh knew going into the game that Gronk was going to be one of Brady's favorite targets, but somehow, the Steelers defense still managed to leave Gronk completely uncovered on two separate plays. 

On the first play where Gronk was left uncovered, Brady found him for a 16-yard touchdown pass. You can see at the top of the picture below just how uncovered Gronk was. 

Despite the fact that he was open for an easy catch, Gronk did have to do some work to get into the end zone.

Somehow, the Steelers would make the same mistake again in the third quarter when Gronk was left wide open for a second time. The Steelers actually put a guy on him this time around, but the linebacker only bumped Gronk for two yards and then left him wide open. 

Brady took advantage of the Steelers' mistake and found Gronkowski for a 52-yard gain. 

The 52-yard reception was the longest of Gronk's career.

The Patriots tight end finished the game with five catches for 94 yards and three touchdowns. The three touchdowns tied a career-high for Gronkowski.  

3. Steelers shoot themselves in the foot Part I. If the Steelers can't walk tomorrow, it's because they shot themselves in the foot three times during Thursday's game. 

The first shot in the foot came on Pittsburgh's opening drive when the Steelers took over on their own 20 and marched right down the field. The Patriots had no answers for the Steelers, who moved the ball 56 yards on only five plays. Everything the Steelers did was working -- until they tried to get cute. 

On first-and-10 from the Patriots' 24, the Steelers tried a trick play with Antonio Brown. Brown was going to throw the ball, but before he could get a pass off, he was taken down for an eight-yard loss. The Steelers drive stalled after that. 

The drive was completely wasted three plays later because the Steelers didn't come away with any points after Josh Scobee missed a 44-yard field goal. 

4. Steelers shoot themselves in the foot Part II. As if the opening drive wasn't bad enough, the Steelers also shot themselves in the foot right before the first half ended. With just under four minutes left in the half, the Steelers got the ball at their own 17-yard line and marched right down the field to the Patriots' 31. 

With 43 seconds left, the Steelers gave the ball to DeAngelo Williams, who ran for a gain of five yards. The Steelers had all their timeouts at this point, but for some reason, decided not to use them.

By the time Pittsburgh got off another play, there was less than 20 seconds left. The next play was an incompletion, so the clock stopped, but the Steelers ended up calling a timeout anyway.

Let's backtrack real quick to that incompletion, though, because it would've been a touchdown if Darrius Heyward-Bey had a smaller shoe size. The Steelers wide receiver caught what would've been a 26-yard touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger, but Heyward-Bey's toe was out of bounds when he caught it. 

In the end, the Steelers would settle for a 44-yard field goal.

5. Steelers shoot themselves in the foot Part III. That 44-yard field goal the Steelers settled for to end the half was actually a risky choice because Josh Scobee's accuracy was everywhere on Thursday. The former Jaguars kicker, who was traded to Pittsburgh on Aug. 31, missed two field goals in the first half against the Patriots.

The misses came from 44 and 46 yards and were a giant factor in the game. Scobee has only been the Steelers kicker for one week and he might not last much longer if coach Mike Tomlin needs to find a scapegoat for the loss. 

6. Steelers have some headset problems. Just when you thought we were done talking about Patriots-related NFL controversies, a new one reared its ugly head on Thursday.

During the first quarter, NBC's broadcast noted that the headsets on the Steelers sidelines had malfunctioned. The Steelers coaching staff was supposed to be able to communicate with each other using the headsets, but instead, all they were hearing was the Patriots radio broadcast.  

Early in the second quarter, NBC said that the NFL had fixed the problem, but apparently, that wasn't the case, at least according to Mike Tomlin. 

After the game, Tomlin was asked about the headsets and he said they were malfunctioning for most of the first half. 

Reporter: "Mike there was a report that your radio went out?"

Tomlin: "That's always the case."

Reporter: "Here [in New England]?

Tomlin: "Yes."

Reporter: "Mike what exactly happened, you just didn't have any communication?"

Tomlin: "We were listening to the Patriots radio broadcast for the majority of the first half. On our headsets."

Things were so bad, NBC's Cris Collinsworth even mentioned the issue during the game. 

"Every team that I know of has some story about what happens to them in this stadium and that's not going to help that they're getting those radio signals in their headset," Collinsworth said.

7. Le'Veon Bell's backup is actually pretty good. If the Steelers learned one thing on Thursday, it's that they have a capable backup running back in DeAngelo Williams. When the Steelers signed Williams in March, they weren't sure what they were getting.

The 32-year-old only played in six games with the Panthers in 2014 and it was unclear if he had anything left in the tank. As it turns out, he has a lot left in the tank. The Steelers running game didn't miss a beat thanks to Williams' 127 yards. 

The Steelers running back averaged 6 yards a crack against New England and looked like a back who might very well be a weapon for the team later on in the season. 

8. Antonio Brown is still unstoppable. If you drafted Antonio Brown in your fantasy league, congratulations because it looks like that decision is going to pay off. 

Brown caught nine passes for a team-high 133 yards against the Patriots. The Steelers receiver also caught an 11-yard touchdown pass on the Steelers' final offensive play of the game.

The touchdown catch was impressive, but it was nowhere near as impressive as what Brown did in the first quarter. On a third-and-6, the Steelers wide receiver somehow made a catch off the helmet of Patriots defender Malcolm Butler. 

And yes, that's the same Butler who sealed New England's Super Bowl win when he picked off Russell Wilson. 

Oh, and Brown's team might not have won, but he definitely had the best haircut in the game. 

9. Gillette Stadium is now home to four Super Bowl banners. Before any football was actually played on Thursday, the Patriots unveiled their newest Super Bowl banner. 

Robert Kraft, Troy Brown and Willie McGinest were among the Patriots' luminaries who brought the team's four Lombardi Trophies out to the field during the ceremony. 

The celebration also included a card stunt.

We also found out an interesting nugget on Thursday night: The Patriots were going to raise a separate banner if Tom Brady had been suspended for the game and that banner would've looked like this.