Or, does the fact that Brady was hit the most of any QB even before he was injured, mean nothing to you, and you think we should operate exactly as before?
Mate, you're a bit off from the truth. Here's why:
Imagine Brady passes 10000 times in a season, and gets hit 100 times.
Now imagine player X passes 100 time in a season, and gets hit 90times.
Now, in
absolute terms, Brady is the more hit player. But in
relative terms, or rather, in
statistically relevant terms, terms with which we can actually make
rational assumptions, Brady has much better
chances of not being hit. And *THIS* is the point. In absolute terms, you're completely right. But the tradeoff is simple.
*IF* the tradeoff of getting hit 100 times is that you get hit 1% of the time, then you are much more inclined to do that - only because, as staff know, the less
frequent you get hit, the less prone you are to injury.
BUT you know, imagine that we take your view, to an extreme (I'm extrapolating). Imagine that Brady throws 10 times in one season. The randomness in nature, the randomness in Pollards hit was such - that in those 10 times - Brady could get severely injured. It's football. There is ALWAYS danger. FACT.
Now, either you read the above argument and understand it, or you don't, in which case I'd be a bit confuzzled. Oh well.
In terms of your questions - do I think the scheme has to change? Slightly, yes. Because in reality any player that is going to take all the snaps in a competitive game CANNOT be put straight into the thick of it and be expected to perform to top standard. That is firstly a liablity to the player, and secondly, too much expectation. I believe we should focus more on the run game, considering the fact we have a top puncher RB and a 1-2 punch. This is to ease Brady back into the game, until he is able to compete with less worry (well, our worry). I believe the team should be more balanced this year as well, regardless of Brady's injury, because that wins games. After a while in 07 with Morris out and Maroney helter skelter we were f'n predictable and it was sh*t to watch at times. I would scream at the TV to run because of the obvious mismatch and we'd pass pass pass, sometimes to our detriment. So - I want spread formations - but I also want a bit more balance. Not for Brady, but for the Patriots to be SB Champs.
Blader.