November 19th 2001

[Michigan Dave]

I loved hearing Brady talk about his Michigan days and how during the week of practice he didn't know if he'd play on Saturday, so he had to treat practice like a game.

He started every game his last two years. That is part of the lore. He didn't know how much he would play, but there were only 2 games that he didn't finish (3 if you count the concussion in the Wisconsin game his 5th year.) He was the starter. He knew damn well he was playing. He was also captain of the team.

He's talked a lot about early in his career, and 1997 when he backed up Griese and didn't know if he'd play, but after Griese left, he was the guy.

 

[PaulThePat]

As it turned out it was an amazing decision which helped turn the Patriots into what they have become. However, after the Kosar controversy at Cleveland it would have been very easy to wimp out and put Drew back in. Plus the unwritten rule about players never losing their spots due to injury must have been in his thoughts. All this plus he was putting his coaching future and the future of the franchise in the hands of an untried 6th round draft pick make it an incredibly brave...but as it turned out..correct call.

Bill...you are the man !! :rocker:

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

at the time i was just ecstatic, now i'm orgasmic. seriously , though, i was glad he replaced bledsoe. i just thought brady looked better.

i remember a patten game against indy where he threw,ran and caught a td. not sure, maybe at indy.

That game was in Indy.....

 

[MoLewisrocks]

He started every game his last two years. That is part of the lore. He didn't know how much he would play, but there were only 2 games that he didn't finish (3 if you count the concussion in the Wisconsin game his 5th year.) He was the starter. He knew damn well he was playing. He was also captain of the team.

He's talked a lot about early in his career, and 1997 when he backed up Griese and didn't know if he'd play, but after Griese left, he was the guy.

But the job was never really entirely his even as a captain. Because Lloyd was ascared of his alumni. That crap with alternating quarters, how he survived that kind of college foundation I will never know. I think his point was he was never 100% certain he would start, whether he did or not is immaterial.

Hey Dave, now that Lloyd is gone does that impact you?

 

[The Boston Patriot]

The penchant for the Bledsoe cult to revise histroy never ceases to amaze me.

Drew DID throw an 11 yd TD, completing a drive started by Brady that was already in Steeler territory. That was his sum total of TDs for the day. shut out in the 2bd half.

And yes, Drew later threw a short swing pass right into the chest of a Steeler LB. Had he been awake and caught it, it would have been a TD and we'd have lost. No SB. Thanks Drew.

And finally, when being sacked, The Statue blithely flipped a pass backwards over his head going God knows where because certainly Drew didn't. Luckily (there was no skill involved) no Pitt player was near where the ball landed.

How folks can romanticise a performance that was fraught with bad, bad decisions, typical of Drew's career, confounds me.

Absolutely true. The backwards pass was a culmination of a career of
stupid moves on behalf of the statue. (Anyone remember that other game
in Pittsburgh where on a screen pass he single handedly snatched defeat from
the jaws of victory?) I was sick the entire game after Brady went out in the
AFCCG and was praying that BB wouldn't think there was anything left in that
tank. I think that is what solidified my opinion of BB as a coach when he
dumped DB and went back to Brady for the SB.

 

[indycolts685]

That game was in Indy.....

I know he threw a long bomb in Indy that went for a touchdown, don't know the exact yardage..

wow it was a 91 yard bomb to a guy named David Patten..

2nd Quarter
TD David Patten, 91 yd pass from Tom Brady (Adam Vinatieri kick is good), 8:56. Drive: 1 plays, 91 yards in 0:00

 

[indycolts685]

Well this was my first brady experence, I had great seats for the Pats beating we took..

www.nfl.com/gamecenter?game_id=17765&displayPage=tab_gamecenter&season=2001&week=REG6

 

[Lansdowne]

I honestly thought it was the right move at the time. They looked more efficient on offense than with Bledsoe.

 

[Lansdowne]

Well this was my first brady experence, I had great seats for the Pats beating we took..

www.nfl.com/gamecenter?game_id=17765&displayPage=tab_gamecenter&season=2001&week=REG6

Ah yes, the David Patten hat trick game!

 

[GameDay]

Was Brady's first start in the NFL against the Colts in the Dome? I remember going to a Colts and Pats game back in 2000 or 2001 and I heard a backup qb was going to be playing for the Pats and I was thinking "cool we have this game" I think it was Brady and he kicked the crap out of us that game..

I guessed Colts fans could never imagine he'd be your nemesis... and I did not imagine him even 1/10 of what he turned out.

No, the game was at NE in week 3 of the '01 season. Pats won 44-13, but it wasn't Brady that kicked the crap out of the Colts that day, it was Manning. He threw 3 picks, 2 were returned for TDs and the 3rd resulted in a Viniatieri field goal. There were also a few Colt fumbles. Brady only threw for 160 yards and no TD, and more importantly no picks.

No Bledsoesque INTs. Also, he didn't hold on to the ball and get sacked. I recalled arguments blaming on the O-line. There was something showing Brady was already smarter than Bledsoe to know when to get rid of the ball in that game.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

it's easy to say six years later but, for what it's worth, i thought it was the right move at the time. i had never drank fully of the Drew Bledsoe Kool Aid and always thought of him as a very, very good stats qb who wasn't going to win an SB. I know that's easy to say in hindsight without a written record to back it up, but it is what I believed at the time.

 

[GameDay]

it's easy to say six years later but, for what it's worth, i thought it was the right move at the time. i had never drank fully of the Drew Bledsoe Kool Aid and always thought of him as a very, very good stats qb who wasn't going to win an SB. I know that's easy to say in hindsight without a written record to back it up, but it is what I believed at the time.

After the 5-11 season, I thought: 1) give Belichick at most only one more year, 2) move on with a new generation and find Bledsoe replacement, and 3) Pats might go into a rebuilding year at 4-12

 

[everlong]

The thing that drove me crazy was all of the local media idiots claiming the fans were all pulling another Michael Bishop.

1. Only the lunatic fringe ever called for Bishop, about 5% of Pats fans, unfortunately that 5% constitutes about 75% of the idiot callers who frequent EEI and other call-in shows.

2. Bishop had zero track record, Brady was about where Derek Anderson is this season. I'm not saying Anderson will develop in a similar fashion I'm just talking about the potential to be a good every day QB.

Ordway and Dennis were the worst and of course Ronny the fraud had Drew's back.

 

[indycolts685]

I guessed Colts fans could never imagine he'd be your nemesis... and I did not imagine him even 1/10 of what he turned out.



No Bledsoesque INTs. Also, he didn't hold on to the ball and get sacked. I recalled arguments blaming on the O-line. There was something showing Brady was already smarter than Bledsoe to know when to get rid of the ball in that game.

yep I would have never guessed it in a million years, The Pats and Colts were hovering around .500 at the time..

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

In all fairness, this only would have tied the game. I only bother to point this out because of your snideness about others "romanticizing" performances.

No. We'd have lost because as I'd said Drew failed to engineer a single TD in his 'heroic' return. I only say this because of your sneering reply. As I'd shown, the facts were that he was on the verge of giving the game back to the Steelers, the very characteristic that made BB seriously motivated to find a better alternative. Thankfully, the Pats STs really came to play that day.

 

[indycolts685]

You see these two stats and I wonder how the game was a blow out...


Passing CP/AT YDS TD INT
P. Manning 22/34 335 1 0
Rushing ATT YDS TD LG
E. James 30 143 0 20

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I was (and am) on the west coast, so none of the Patriots games until the Rams regular season game, and of course, the playoffs were available on TV. Now, seriously, did you think right away, or after a game or three, that Brady was better? Just asking. Out here, I kept waiting for Bledsoe to get his job back, even thought Bill might go with him for the SB. Obviously, glad I was wrong (or ill-informed).

Well seriously, if you'd had the chance to go to summer camp at Smithfield that year you would have seen Brady totally outplay Bledsoe. Nobody, not even BB knew what he had in #12 but BB and other observers knew that they had a guy who possibly could win more games than Bledsoe would.

Remember back then BB had just come off 5-11 with Bledsoe. His job was on the line in year 2 because the problem with winning simply could not be The Franchise. Then the year starts off 0-2 with Bledsoe. How hard was it for BB to decide that staying with Brady once Drew was healthy would produce more Ws? The hard part was withstanding press and fan criticism, not really hard for BB, and possibly dealing with Kraft who had been fond of Drew.

 

[PatriotsReign]

Bledsoe threw a hell of TD on that game , long missile rocket , don't know if you remember it ?

Anyone who has the 2001 SB dvd can't ever forget it! The one with the gladiators in the beginning?...awesome!

 

[The Boston Patriot]

Well seriously, if you'd had the chance to go to summer camp at Smithfield that year you would have seen Brady totally outplay Bledsoe.

Every report I heard out of camp that year was a "who is this kid" type of
comment. I was so psyched that we had someone, anyone, to QB the
team other than Drew. I had all I could take of Mr. Give The Game Away
so I would have been happy with anyone else, even Bishop. Your bringing
up his backward pass again will cause me nightmares once again this evening.
To this day I cringe when I queue up that DVD and see the idiotic, futile,
moronic, dumb, Drewish, attempt to give the game away. Nice guy that Drew,
but really, I've met pavement bricks with a better football acumen.

 

[mgcolby]

er... I said "give Drew a 1200 yard back and he would of won the SB too."

:bricks:

Maybe, I should have revisionist history..