How is it a question of receivers when he had guys open he didn't hit?
Because every QB misses WRs. It's hen you have a pop gun offense that your misses are glaring. Peyton missed more passes than Brady yesterday. 4 to wide open guys. Brady missed 2. But because Manning has a great offense, his misses are irrelevant. Brady's misses essentially decide the game.
That 3rd down throw to Slater, Edelman was wide open in the middle for a first down.
Any decent receiver hauls that 50 yard pass. There's a huge difference between what the Patriots put out there and what other teams put out there. You have to stretch that D.
That overthrown pass to Edelman should have been a TD.
That Collie overhthrown pass could have resulted in a TD, at least set up for a FG.
Those are three critical mistakes Brady made. He gets a first down on our second drive with an easy pass to Edelman, they get in a rhythm, we score points and put pressure on Peyton's offense.
Wait, it's a mistake going long and making a perfect pass to a receiver one on one down the sideline?
Even if we didn't do that on our second drive, had Brady hit Edelman when he was open deep, we score a TD and go up 7-3. Way different game. Puts pressure on Peyton, gives our defense confidence.
And finally, if he hits Collie on that deep pass, even if we only score a FG, at least it makes the score 10-6, which at that time would have been huge considering we didn't do jack on offense.
When Peyton overthrew his receivers, he usually came back and converted on 3rd downs. We didn't.
In a game that Brady had to be as good as Peyton, keep converting on 3rd downs and keep him off the field, the few critical mistakes he made WAS the game. That is truth man. Our defense was never going to stop Peyton. That offense is way too good for our offense to go 3 and out multiple times.
