Tom Brady silences any doubts with five-touchdown victory

Admit it. You were starting to wonder. After a loss to the Rams and a less-than-inspiring zero-touchdown effort against the Patriots, two crucial games, the tiniest spark of doubt about Tom Brady flickered to life in your mind. We've been writing his professional obituary for what seems like a decade now, but he's got to slow down sometime, right?

Not yet. Playing at home for the first time in three weeks, and in the early-game slot for the first time all season, Brady eviscerated the Dolphins. He threw for 411 yards and five touchdowns in the 45-17 victory, a sterling effort that ranks among his finest statistical performances ever.

This marked Brady's ninth career five-touchdown game, three of which have come with Tampa Bay, and 11th career 400-yard game, second with Tampa Bay. In all of Brady's career, he's never once thrown for 400+ yards and 5+ touchdowns in a single game, until now.

Brady spread the love around the field, connecting with 10 different receivers. The finest play of the game was his 62-yard touchdown strike to Antonio Brown, but Brady had no trouble distributing the ball to two full basketball teams' worth of receivers.

"He's got a lot of weapons," Bucs head coach Bruce Arians said after the game. "There's a contribution from everybody. And he really trusts guys ... he still can throw that deep ball as good as anybody."

It's impossible to overestimate the value that Brady has brought to the Bucs organization. Per The Athletic, Tampa Bay has scored 44 points or more six times in Brady's 25 games. They had scored that total six times in 44 seasons before Brady arrived.

Brady draws the Eagles this coming Thursday night, then the Bears and Saints. While he may not post magnificent stats against any of those three, he's ended any premature burials of his career. Again.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.