FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Playing as a visitor at Gillette Stadium wasn’t the only big change for Tom Brady on Sunday night.

The seven-time Super Bowl champion, six with the Patriots, struggled in the rainy conditions much of the evening. He was booed — often.

Being Brady, he also won.

Brady took Tampa Bay on a 45-yard drive aided by a 31-yard pass interference penalty, and Ryan Succop made a 48-yard field goal for a 19-17 victory. While most of the game was not a classic for the 44-year-old quarterback, the march to victory seemed fitting in a place Brady has won 135 of 158 games.

Brady threw for 269 yards, but the Bucs (3-1) scored only one touchdown, on an 8-yard run by Ronald Jones. With the game in the balance, he watched from an unfamiliar sideline as Nick Folk had a 56-yard field goal hit the left upright in the final minute for New England.

Brady then hugged dozens of his former teammates and coaches at midfield — a quick one with Bill Belichick — as the rain intensified and Gillette Stadium emptied in silence.

Despite soaring expectations and hype, this was no classic. There weren’t a lot of personal highlights for the returning hero. Indeed, when Brady was sacked by Matt Judon in the second quarter, the crowd went wild.

Even when the Buccaneers quarterback set the record for yards passing in a career on a 28-yard completion to Mike Evans in the first quarter, there was a mixture of cheers and applause along with the jeers. Brady, 44, reached 80,359 yards through the air and then called a timeout before the next play — though no announcement had been made about setting the mark. That came during the timeout.

Ryan Succop’s field goal a few plays later — after Brady misfired on a couple of throws — gave Tampa Bay a 3-0 lead. By halftime in a steady rain, Brady looked ordinary in the highly charged atmosphere, and defending champion Tampa Bay trailed 7-6. Brady was 15 for 27 for 182 yards, with a few pinpoint completions and just as many overthrows.

After a friendly greeting for the quarterback during pregame warmups, the fans were in no mood to offer him a welcome when the game began.

Brady completed two passes on the Buccaneers first drive before they stalled and punted. He stoically headed to the sideline — on the opposite side of the field from where he usually settled as a Patriot — with little reaction to the fans’ jeers. It was that way most of the game.

He took the Bucs into scoring range on their next possession, however, surpassing the passing record of Drew Brees, too.

During warmups, to chants of “BRADY, BRADY, BRADY in a half-filled Gillette Stadium, he knew exactly where he was, of course. He did his customary “Let’s Go,” fist pump after jogging the entire sideline. The crowd responded with its cheer as Brady hugged New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels before heading to the other end of the field to warm up.

Belichick came out midway through pregame warmups but did not approach Brady.

Earlier, there was a lengthy and seemingly warm embrace between Brady and Robert Kraft, with the quarterback towering over the Patriots owner outside the visitor’s locker room.

Brady, who left New England in 2020 after leading the Patriots to those six Super Bowl titles, then won another in his first season with Tampa Bay, even appeared comfortable heading to a dressing room he was totally unfamiliar with.

Not that anything should have seemed close to normal for the most anticipated match of the early NFL season. Brady’s mediocre first half in the wet conditions added to the unusual scene.