Steve Young just nailed it (Brady doing more, with less help)

Elway's team was so loaded they had to pay parts of it under the table.

TBR said:

...Also points out how Brady's been practically carrying this team for 4 years now and has been doing more with less, more than any other QB ever has.

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Not on the same calibre, but Tony Romo has been in a similar situation - poor OL, no defense, taking play from someone that was never qualified to be a HC. Should have got out of Dallas five years ago.

It looks like Tom Brady is in a similar situation.

PatsFanInVa said:

I don't know, Marian. It seems that the system has worked very well given few constants over many years. At present it is failing to produce. We're all observing a number of decrements, and they are interrelated. It is tempting to point to a single-point failure (for example, playcalling, Brady Decline, Mankins Departure/Other O-line insufficiency, whatever you want.)

Maybe you/somebody else can tell us how many new plays have been added to the offensive playbook over the years; "The system we stick to" was bombs away in 2007, dink and dunk in 2001, in between in 03 and o4, etc. At some point I heard something about zone blocking being added... serious question here, what are the common characteristics since Weiss' time that you mean by "the system"? I'm nobody's football genius, and more hoping to learn something than doubting you here.

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I'm not a coach too, so I don't know the details of the system evolution. The point is we have very low efficiency teaching new WR especially rookies. On the other hand none of these bust WRs that left us had successfull careers elsewhere so I suppose it's just bad management. I suppose it's a combination of everything you have mentioned so that we struggle right now on offense.

You're right that WRs that left (e.g., Givens, Patten, Branch... Reche Caldwell...) never lit up the league. We got the last drops out of the Moss tank. I believe that Welker has done fairly well in Denver to date But you're right, he's the outlier. And I don't think he'll be producing for much longer, given health concerns.

I've heard it say there's a lot to grasp in the Pats' system. But come game-day, it looks like a pretty limited menu of plays that Josh McDaniels is dialing up. Not a lot of razzle-dazzle happening out there. You have to figure he's "taking a shot" all the time, but they're going to other than first reads (the protection/getting open issue).

We do see things like drops and just plain bad throws (and especially vs. KC, bad decisions) on those opportunities that arise. However, all else being equal, it's hard to say this system can't be successful. It is easier to say (but harder to do anything with it) that this system, with the personnel playing in it, is not being successful.

This is a similar situation with one variable changed: Brady being expected to take a lot of meh players and making them better. Brady is no longer up to the role of making this many guys better through personal heroics.

The conspiracy theory explanation - BB wants him to fail, therefore we save cap money, call him finished, and run him out of town - does not seem like a realistic narrative to me.

He's got a couple of decent pieces in the remains of Gronk and in Edelman. It was a statement last week not to dress Dobson and Thompkins -- that is, it was unusual, and signifies something -- but what it signifies is stuck in that same world of tea-leaf reading. Certainly there's been an emphasis on getting a running game going to balance the O. That speaks to giving Brady more play-action options when he's got the game riding on him. The O-line hasn't been all suck all the time, but they are bad by and large.

I finally have Monday behind me and dare to hope for a bounce-back - at least a solid showing if not a win. It's come to that -- there never used to be a team about which I'd say "I don't see us winning this one, no way." And it certainly wasn't the Bengals.

I'm thinking that way, and I hope I'm wrong. I hope we see the crazy bounceback game. But that's tied to memories and habits of thought that have a strong feeling don't apply this year.

Boo freakin hoo! LOL