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"You hear some people say he isn't, but I think he's pretty darn close," said ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer. "I don't see a big difference. I thought the talk early in the season about his fundamentals was ridiculous. I thought he was fine early on; it was just a matter of trying to get the timing down offensively. Then he goes for five 300-yard games and everyone says 'He's back.' I still thought he was the same; it was just a matter of getting their timing and continuity, and it helped they didn't face a very good pass defense.
"Now the last few weeks, he hasn't been so sharp. New Orleans just kicked the snot out of him. But against Miami, he was 15 of 16 at one point, so you can't say he was bad in the game. They just made a couple of mistakes; I'm still not sure if Randy [Moss] was supposed to go inside on the fade, there was a third-down play late in the game where he forced it to [Wes] Welker, and there was a go route to [Sam] Aiken that he missed.
"But the point to me is that their margin for error is less. Now, with a couple mistakes, it makes it a lot worse. So when you look at Brady specifically, he is still one of the great players in the league and is still having a top-seven quarterback year."
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Others aren't so quick to agree with Dilfer.
"He's getting a lot more contact in the pocket. He's maybe not as aggressive to step into those throws," Buffalo Bills safety George Wilson told The Associated Press. "From the games I have seen on TV, throws that have become typical of him, he's missing. He's not hitting them every time like you've grown to expect of him."
"I don't necessarily see anything different other than the talent around him," New York Jets cornerback Lito Sheppard told AP. "They have basically two guys in the passing game that gets the ball, where before it was four or five guys and they didn't have that go-to guy. I think that has kind of made them as a team more predictable. … The defense helped him out a lot in the past. I think the lack of big plays on the defense has been the biggest difference in that team right now."
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On offense Brady used to hit the open man, lots of guys for the other team to worry about. Now if they can take Welker and Moss out of the game Brady is lost. Game planning vs this offense is not that hard anymore.
On defense, no leaders, no play makers, no pass rush. Soft coverage on defense to start the second halves of games is a great plan that seems to be working well
On offense Brady used to hit the open man, lots of guys for the other team to worry about. Now if they can take Welker and Moss out of the game Brady is lost. Game planning vs this offense is not that hard anymore.
On defense, no leaders, no play makers, no pass rush. Soft coverage on defense to start the second halves of games is a great plan that seems to be working well
sadly doesnt this say how manning played all those yrs without a defense ?iam sure that debate will start again
Brady has thrown picks before, even costly ones. He's still the same player he's always been. Just isn't playing with the same kind of team. Dilfer and Shepard seem to get that, although Reiss can't even comprehend that. Maybe because he simply lifted selectively from this far more balanced piece by Howard Ullman of the AP from a day earlier which included liberal attribution to additional AP reporters...as well as an interesting observation from a safety off the street who just finished owning Randy Moss as well as others that would seem to contridict the tone ESPN Mike apparently wished to set. Hope we don't have to start calling him Ron Reiss...
On offense Brady used to hit the open man, lots of guys for the other team to worry about. Now if they can take Welker and Moss out of the game Brady is lost. Game planning vs this offense is not that hard anymore.
On defense, no leaders, no play makers, no pass rush. Soft coverage on defense to start the second halves of games is a great plan that seems to be working well
Lito Sheppard nailed both parts of it - the predictability on offense with Brady focusing on 2 guys, and the lack of big plays on defense.
The thing is, when we didn't have guys like Welker and Moss, Brady used to spread the ball around to whoever was there. In 2006 we didn't have much talent at WR - our entire WR group wasn't much better than Edelman, Aiken and Stanbeck, but TB used everyone to the max. He's not doing that anymore. No matter how good the receivers, it's always easier to shut down 2 guys compared with 5-6. At times Brady has seemed locked in on Moss and Welker, rather than looking for the open guy. That's the big difference I see. Whether that's because of a change in Brady or a lack of time, I'm not sure. Maybe a bit of both.
The defense is evolving, and will be good over time. But the lack of pressure on opposing QBs limits it. It's a decent defense, but it's not a defense that "bails out" the offense.
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To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. "OVER Loading at ANY position can create a Fatal Advantage. THAT is what interests ME. Attacking With Concentrated Force. THAT is what WINS. In the words ~ more or less ~ of General Patton: 'I'm fighting a WAR, here. Let the B*****ES worry about their FLANKS.' " - Off the Grid
"The key to any successful organization is to anticipate things, not react to them." - Michael Lombardi
God I'm so sick of the media trying to make bold pronouncments about this coach, this QB, this franchise.
Enough already!!!
Do the world a favor mediots and go play in traffic.
Lito Sheppard nailed both parts of it - the predictability on offense with Brady focusing on 2 guys, and the lack of big plays on defense.
The thing is, when we didn't have guys like Welker and Moss, Brady used to spread the ball around to whoever was there. In 2006 we didn't have much talent at WR - our entire WR group wasn't much better than Edelman, Aiken and Stanbeck, but TB used everyone to the max. He's not doing that anymore.
Exactly.
And it explains why Welker has so many receptions. Welker bacically replaced Troy Brown.
Reiss: Has Brady lost the Mariano mystique?
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