Greg Bedard dealing with Playoff Level Stupidity Listening Thread

[Tom meets Kaepernick]

Brady's INT before the half was one of his worst throws in the playoffs, or his career. But I'm not buying the "cost us 10-14 points" stuff. Baltimore's D stymied our offense after the McCourty interception, why is it a given that the Patriots should given up 50 yards with ease to end the half?

Baltimore's defense didn't do anything special after the interception. Brady just made 2 terrible throws to Gronk that were either too low or behind him.

 

[Jackson 2]

i get the impression that felger is pretty self aware

he knows he is a talented provocateur/radio host

i didnt follow felger when he was a beat writer......so i dont know how good he was at that

you think he sees himself as something greater?

Absolutely without question. He has described himself publicly on more than one occasion as the only honest journalist in Boston. Now, take that literally and take an honest look at him as a professional. Your Honor, I rest my case.

 

[BradyManny]

After being down 14-0 and looking very flat, they had a chance to do the "double possession" pre + post halftime. That was their best shot at taking the game over once and for all.

They were driving quite nicely, and coughed up the ball at a terribly crucial time. All the momentum they had gained from coming back from the 14 pt deficit was lost on that INT.

Instead of potentially scoring 7, we allowed them to score 7. That's where the "14 pt swing" comes from.

I understand where the math comes from, but when allocating the blame and 100% goes to Brady, that's some sketchy math to me. If the Pats throw 3 times and go 3 & out quickly, which was certainly a possibility with 1st & 15, and they punt to say the Baltimore 25, you're talking about a 20 yard difference in outcome. Would we still hold 14 points against Brady if the drive yielded a 3 & out as opposed to an interception? Doubtful.

I'm not arguing it wasn't a critical mistake, and could've been a game-costing mistake, I just think conceding the ensuing 7 points the Ravens quickly racked up and assigning that to Brady is flawed. It wasn't a pick-6. They were on their side of the 50 with a little over a minute - the D could've stepped up there and held them to 3 or even forced them to punt it back. That part of the performance is not on Brady.

 

[Oswlek]

Brady's INT before the half was one of his worst throws in the playoffs, or his career. But I'm not buying the "cost us 10-14 points" stuff. Baltimore's D stymied our offense after the McCourty interception, why is it a given that the Patriots should given up 50 yards with ease to end the half?

You are correct that the D still had a chance to stop them, but the simple fact is that had Tom dumped the ball to Amendola, Baltimore never gets the ball and they have no chance to score. It's not like a mid quarter turnover where the other team would have gotten the ball anyway, just at a different time with different field position, that possession could have been eliminated entirely.

So the point still stands that Tom's pick cost the team at least 7 points even if you give the defense some blame as well.

 

[rochrist]

Absolutely without question. He has described himself publicly on more than one occasion as the only honest journalist in Boston. Now, take that literally and take an honest look at him as a professional. Your Honor, I rest my case.

Of course, there's absolutely no part of a journalists actual, like, job that Felger does. Long ago maybe, but not now. Now he's basically TMZ of local sports.

 

[Jackson 2]

Of course, there's absolutely no part of a journalists actual, like, job that Felger does. Long ago maybe, but not now. Now he's basically TMZ of local sports.

Yup, and when he was a beat writer, I thought he was pretty good. Always took on Borges when the latter would take Bledsoe's side and Felger Brady's. And ro, that's part of my beef with him - he insists he's still a journalist.

 

[supafly]

I'm not arguing it wasn't a critical mistake, and could've been a game-costing mistake, I just think conceding the ensuing 7 points the Ravens quickly racked up and assigning that to Brady is flawed. It wasn't a pick-6. They were on their side of the 50 with a little over a minute - the D could've stepped up there and held them to 3 or even forced them to punt it back. That part of the performance is not on Brady.

I hear you. Unfortunately, the defense did not play very well--obviously more so in the first half.

It's great that they stepped up and held certain players in check in the 2nd half, along with holding them to "only" 10 points, but overall, the performance was not a good one.

As far as TFB's involved, I think Oswlek's comments wrap it up quite nicely. It's definitely not "all" on Brady by any means, but he certainly lit the fuse at a very critical time in the game. Unfortunately, we've seen that more often than we'd like. Of course the good still heavily outweighs the bad, and he was once again able to redeem himself and save our postseason chances by putting the team on his back. Hopefully, he doesn't take such a difficult road again this season.