We all knew this was coming.

The New England Patriots won a Super Bowl last year, and what should have been an offseason of celebration and good feelings became one embroiled in litigation and controversy. The Deflategate mess, followed by the four-game suspension of team leader and New England prince/demigod Tom Brady, meant that the Patriots spent their offseason reading headlines calling them cheaters and bums.

Tom Brady’s suspension being overturned was the final straw — in the eyes of the Patriots and their fans, Judge Richard M. Berman showed the whole NFL investigation to be tainted.

They’re angry. And on Sunday, they took that anger out on the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Jaguars kept it reasonable until the second quarter, and then the Patriots went for the jugular. The final score was 51-17. Tom Brady completed 33 of 42 passes for 358 yards and two touchdowns, including his 400th career touchdown. LeGarrette Blount rushed in another three touchdowns. It was a destruction. A message game. Not for poor Jacksonville, a team that didn’t sign up for this, but for the rest of the league.

This has happened before. The Patriots spent the start of the 2007 season answering questions about Spygate, reading comments and headlines calling them cheaters.

They promptly went undefeated in the regular season, destroying every opponent right up to the Super Bowl, when Eli Manning and the Giants shocked them and ruined their perfect year.

The 2015 Patriots had that look on Sunday. They beat you in different ways now. Eight years ago, the Randy Moss deep ball was unguardable, and Wes Welker in the slot gave the Patriots a pass attack that was impossible to defend. This year, the Patriots are much more precise, with tons of short routes and side-to-side movement. They also have Rob Gronkowski now, a human Jolt Cola with a 6’6″ frame.

The two things that remain the same are Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, two men who know better than anyone in the league how to take a negative headline and use it to their advantage. The Patriots aren’t cheaters to Belichick and Brady, no. To them, they’re victims of the league’s jealousy. (Or at least that’s how their selling it to their team.)

However they’re doing it, it’s working. The Patriots are clicking. We’re only at Week 3, but right now, they look like the best team in the NFL.

And you can call them cheaters and say they all deserve to be thrown out of the league, but remember: Your words only appear to make them stronger.

(Correction: This article originally stated the Spygate scandal happened prior to the 2007 season. It happened at the beginning of the season.)