CINCINNATI — Jacoby Brissett started crying as the Patriots’ buses pulled into Paycor Stadium on Sunday. Then he cried again during warmups. And again when he stepped into the huddle in the first quarter.

“I think I cried three times before the game,” Brissett said after leading the Patriots to a 16-10 victory over the Bengals. “My emotions were definitely high. Things like that don’t happen often and I don’t take them for granted.”

Sunday’s game was the 49th start of Brissett’s NFL career, but his first since Thanksgiving weekend in 2022. He’s bounced around the league, from New England to Indianapolis to Miami to Cleveland to Washington and back to New England again. He’s spent the last four years as a backup, patiently waiting on the bench, not knowing if days like Sunday would ever happen again. There was even some chatter that rookie Drake Maye could overtake Brissett as the Week 1 starter.

“I cried when (Jerod) Mayo came up to me before the game,” Brissett said. “He started laughing and said something like, ‘Man, you’re going to win us this game. You’re going to be out.’ I’d never heard that from a coach before and it meant a lot to me.”

Mayo would prove to be prophetic, and the decision to keep Brissett over Maye to start the season proved to be the right one.

“Jacoby played great — that’s our guy,” left tackle Vederian Lowe said. “He’s our captain for a reason, and he’s the guy that’s got to lead our offense.”

Brissett wasn’t the star of the scoreboard, completing 15 of 24 passes for 121 yards, but he led his team to a surprise victory with smart, savvy play.

Brissett caught a couple of key passes, but his best plays were what he avoided — turnovers and sacks. The Bengals’ defensive front broke through several times and Brissett got a couple of hits, but he finished the game with just one sack for minus-1 yard, and no interceptions or fumbles.

“He’s just the ultimate leader,” running back Rhamondre Stevenson said. “It’s easy to follow his lead and follow his lead.”

Brissett navigated the pocket well, sliding through the rush and had 35 yards on four scrambles (not including kneel downs). Three of them moved the chains, including two on third down.

“He showed a lot of grit,” receiver KJ Osborn said. “He got pressured a couple times and kept us on the field, which is really underrated but really important to us.”

Brissett appeared calm as he led Alex Van Pelt’s offense. It’s a connection that began in 2022, when Brissett started 11 games with Van Pelt and the Browns during Deshaun Watson’s suspension. Brissett and Van Pelt appeared to pick up where they left off two years ago.

“It was awesome,” Mayo said. “He was making moves with his legs, he was making moves with his arm. He’s a tough guy, he was taking hits the whole game — I was like, ‘Man, get up’ — and he did everything we asked him to do.”

Brissett not only avoided sacks and turnovers, he ran the operation smoothly, with the offense taking just three penalties (one of which was intentional). Brissett also managed the clock masterfully, getting 7:20 off the Patriots’ lone touchdown drive, expertly running the clock to 0:00 on the field goal drive late in the second quarter, and shaving 7:24 off the clock in the fourth quarter with another field goal. The Patriots held the ball for 8:06 longer than the Bengals.

Those reasons, more than pure passing statistics, are why the Patriots selected the 31-year-old Brissett over the 22-year-old Maye to start the season.

“He’s a veteran, man — played a lot of football, was super cool, calm and collected,” tight end Hunter Henry said. “Great checks, great timely plays, great with his feet too. Made some big conversions on third down to make some drives happen.”

Brissett was a little red-faced after the game, but seemed to enjoy the opportunity to celebrate with his teammates and speak onstage as the team’s starting quarterback.

Brissett has come a long way to get back to this position.

“It was awesome, man — that’s a great team win in all three phases of the game,” he said. “To finish the game in a winning formation, it doesn’t get much better than that. Just proud of the job we did.”

Read more about the Patriots’ Week 1 win

Ben Volin can be reached at [email protected].