Is Brady actually choking?

[MoLewisrocks]

I don't know if choke is the right word. I would say he plays nervous these days.
The mental aspect of Tom Brady's game is what has changed.
That boondoggle at the end of the 1st half was such a prime example.
1st and 10 from the 10 yd line with 20+ secs left in the half, can't find anyone open so Tom runs, he actually RUNS for 3 yds ON FIRST DOWN rather than throwing the ball away and saving time and he then compounds the original mistake and let's the clock run down before calling a TO with something like 4 secs left.
That is a mental breakdown. That is a player being completely unaware of the game situation. A QB who was once so Joe Cool he had frost on his helmet has now morphed into a nervous Nellie.
UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!
Brady no longer elevates his game in the biggest moments, the biggest games.

Your posts are seldom worth responding to and this is no exception. The sideline determined the approach and Brady was told to save the TO and clock the ball if the gain was short. Belichick said on the post game they believed they would have enough time to clock it after any play and determined they wanted to save the TO for a FG shot. He said he and Brady finally called the TO simultaneously when they realized the assumption was faulty. They lost as much time or more letting the clock wind down to the 2 minute warning. That wasn't Brady's decision. They also lost a TO when Hernandez chose to zig instead of zag out of bounds to gain a few more meaningless yards in a time constrained situation.

Belichick played the whole game nervous and conservatively and his staff and team seemed to be a reflection of that. He told the eye candy during the half time comment that they had to get the red zone fixed on offense because he was concerned about the Ravens quick strike potential. He spent the entire game coaching up his swiss army knives and in the absence of Talib it just seemed to get worse by the series. Maybe he should spend more time personally assessing the offense (he used to even tweek Charlie's playcalls in game) and becoming accountable for the roster they keep attempting to scheme to victory. Once again this team entered a win or go home game against a more broadly talented roster who struggled with injury in the regular season but focused on getting to the playoffs healthy and scheme failed them. Missing one of it's two most significant pieces on either side of the ball with no real functional depth or sufficient talent elsewhere to allow it to adapt. Or at least none they'd willingly use. Vereen might have challenged the Ravens with his speed, but he wasn't featured in the game plan despite his breakout performance against the Texans. I for one would like to know why.

I feel like once again I spent an evening watching this team stubbornly bang it's head against a brick wall determined to prove that scheme can carry the day.

 

[letekro]

the pats scored plenty of points without gronk......as for talib, webb is a better corner......end of story

you'e just making excuses........you should start working on next year's....tell yourself whatever you need to

Against good teams in the playoffs, you need guys that can make catches when covered--that's gronkowski. It is absurd to think that a top 10 weapon in the NFL is not an enormous loss in a game like this.

As for Talib, losing him is a much bigger deal than the Ravens losing Webb. The reason? Balt has 2 quality corners after Talib--Williams and Graham. The Patriots only have one--Dennard. Arrington outside required safety help or Torrey Smith would've scored a 70 yard TD every play, which left Marquise Cole alone on Boldin, which is just unfair to Cole.

Let's not forget Chandler Jones--this was the guy that was supposed to make the difference in the playoffs with his pass rush. unfortunately he was never healthy in the second half of the year.

Injuries had an enormous impact on this game--don't believe the stupid cliches like "no excuses" or "next man up". The next man up sometimes is not good enough.

 

[Kid~Brady]

Maybe Brady should announce his retirement.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

You are right on with everything here. Like I mentioned in another thread, Brady Pulled a Bledsoe yesterday, meaning, that he did amazing between the defensive goal line and the offensive 20. The 400+ yards of offense is a testament to that factoid, however, when he hit the red zone...got very little. What was up with not being able to execute 3rd and short all day? Some really stupid play calling!! Where was the hurry-up offense? This is something that creates a squad wide focus and rhythm...stupid coaching?
I can't blame Brady for the dropped passes or his receivers not getting out of bounds, but ya, I can point a finger at him for poor clock management, bad short passes to wide open receivers and totally missing wide open receivers downfield. Brady was off, this I saw in pregame warmup.
How Brady looks in pregame warm ups is a tell tale sign when it comes to Tom and he really didn't look good even in warmups. He has 2 gametime looks...The "Totally Focused" look and the "deer in the headlights" look. IMO, yesterday he had the latter of the two looks. We talk about "Body Language" when it comes to Brady and from the time he came out on the field with Mallet leading the way running strong and Brady just non chalontly jogging up the field, the way he just had his hands in his handwarmer most of warmups, throwing the odd ball here and there but mostly just going through the motions.
I turned to my buddy and said, "I've seen this before....this is gonna be a long day.". You could tell in the first few series that he was off...not crisp...indecisive...almost like he's thinking too much rather than just going with the flow and doing the instinctive things.
When you're at the game, you can see things you don't on TV. Brady had many an open receiver in the first half that he just never picked up on. I can remember Branch being WIDE open and Brady just dumped it off. Sorry Folks...Brady..the team leader, was just not himself and you know what some say..."As Brady goes, so goes the Team"...and they are going Golfing in Hawaii

The body language contingent checks in and in blue so as to get noticed...

 

[BadMoFo]

Your posts are seldom worth responding to and this is no exception. The sideline determined the approach and Brady was told to save the TO and clock the ball if the gain was short. Belichick said on the post game they believed they would have enough time to clock it after any play and determined they wanted to save the TO for a FG shot. He said he and Brady finally called the TO simultaneously when they realized the assumption was faulty. They lost as much time or more letting the clock wind down to the 2 minute warning. That wasn't Brady's decision. They also lost a TO when Hernandez chose to zig instead of zag out of bounds to gain a few more meaningless yards in a time constrained situation.

Belichick played the whole game nervous and conservatively and his staff and team seemed to be a reflection of that. He told the eye candy during the half time comment that they had to get the red zone fixed on offense because he was concerned about the Ravens quick strike potential. He spent the entire game coaching up his swiss army knives and in the absence of Talib it just seemed to get worse by the series. Maybe he should spend more time personally assessing the offense (he used to even tweek Charlie's playcalls in game) and becoming accountable for the roster they keep attempting to scheme to victory. Once again this team entered a win or go home game against a more broadly talented roster who struggled with injury in the regular season but focused on getting to the playoffs healthy and scheme failed them. Missing one of it's two most significant pieces on either side of the ball with no real functional depth or sufficient talent elsewhere to allow it to adapt. Or at least none they'd willingly use. Vereen might have challenged the Ravens with his speed, but he wasn't featured in the game plan despite his breakout performance against the Texans. I for one would like to know why.

I feel like once again I spent an evening watching this team stubbornly bang it's head against a brick wall determined to prove that scheme can carry the day.

I know we're all trying to lay blame where we feel blame should fall, but I don't think anyone here was complaining about the Hernandez run for extra yardage there, as it happened. He gained 5 yards and possibly more on that pass. We had two timeouts at that point. Enough time for three shots to the end zone, plus the extra timeout. Brady knows the situation, he's the only one who can throw the ball away or make a play to the end zone.

 

[DocHoliday]

Your posts are seldom worth responding to and this is no exception. The sideline determined the approach and Brady was told to save the TO and clock the ball if the gain was short. Belichick said on the post game they believed they would have enough time to clock it after any play and determined they wanted to save the TO for a FG shot. He said he and Brady finally called the TO simultaneously when they realized the assumption was faulty. They lost as much time or more letting the clock wind down to the 2 minute warning. That wasn't Brady's decision. They also lost a TO when Hernandez chose to zig instead of zag out of bounds to gain a few more meaningless yards in a time constrained situation.

Belichick played the whole game nervous and conservatively and his staff and team seemed to be a reflection of that. He told the eye candy during the half time comment that they had to get the red zone fixed on offense because he was concerned about the Ravens quick strike potential. He spent the entire game coaching up his swiss army knives and in the absence of Talib it just seemed to get worse by the series. Maybe he should spend more time personally assessing the offense (he used to even tweek Charlie's playcalls in game) and becoming accountable for the roster they keep attempting to scheme to victory. Once again this team entered a win or go home game against a more broadly talented roster who struggled with injury in the regular season but focused on getting to the playoffs healthy and scheme failed them. Missing one of it's two most significant pieces on either side of the ball with no real functional depth or sufficient talent elsewhere to allow it to adapt. Or at least none they'd willingly use. Vereen might have challenged the Ravens with his speed, but he wasn't featured in the game plan despite his breakout performance against the Texans. I for one would like to know why.

I feel like once again I spent an evening watching this team stubbornly bang it's head against a brick wall determined to prove that scheme can carry the day.

Your last sentence is so true. This team spends so much time focusing on easy mismatches and ways to scheme defensive confusion that it forgets how to execute when those are taken away.

 

[BSR]

I know we're all trying to lay blame where we feel blame should fall, but I don't think anyone here was complaining about the Hernandez run for extra yardage there, as it happened. He gained 5 yards and possibly more on that pass. We had two timeouts at that point. Enough time for three shots to the end zone, plus the extra timeout. Brady knows the situation, he's the only one who can throw the ball away or make a play to the end zone.

What are you talking about? It was a stupid play and I most certainly was critical of it at the time. He should have ran out. There was no way he was making it to the end zone. It wasn't the biggest deal in the world but cumulatively with all of the other miscues on that drive it added up to a missed TD opportunity.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Agree with your analysis vis-a-vis Brady getting too finicky about who he's throwing the ball to.
Disagree about the O line. Numerous times yesterday the Patriots had 2nd down and short and Brady was in shotgun trying (and failing all too often) to throw the ball ten yds down the field.
The offense got completely out of balance yesterday.
Far too much passing and not enough running. When this offense gets too far out of balance they lose games.
When will they ever learn????

They is not Brady. That is scheme and game plan and talent or lack thereof driven. All coaching and FO decision making driven.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

What more offensive talent is going to make him better?

He's got one of the better running games with some very young, talented runners, he's got the best tight ends in the NFL, one of the best, if not the best, slot receiver in the NFL. He's got a better than average outside receiver that makes some of the most difficult catches you can make, and his line pretty much gives him as much time as he wants.

You can't expect him to have a HOFer at every position.

The running game remains suspect whether that's on the backs or the line or the willingness of the OC and HC to commit fully to it. Has it's moments, but still isn't something they can do when the have to or when the opposition is committed to stopping it. He does not have the best TE's in the NFL except when they are on the field in tandem which is increasingly infrequently. Gronk may be stand alone quality when healthy, Hernandez isn't. That slot receiver is overworked on offense and ST. They do not have a better than average outside receiver anywhere on the roster or the horizen. His line generally gives him all day when defenses rush 3 or 4 and drop 7-8 into coverage against his limited remotely viable weapons. Thought we'd located a 4th weapon last week following a breakout performance but the braintrust seemingly disagreed.

Flacco doesn't have HOF talent surrounding him. Just a lot of playmakers. Guys who can beat single coverage and occasionally double coverage. Guys with size and speed and the physicality to consistently contest defenders for tough throws and burn them middle deep. Flacco also has the advantage of playing against our defense.

 

[The_Riddler]

I know we're all trying to lay blame where we feel blame should fall, but I don't think anyone here was complaining about the Hernandez run for extra yardage there, as it happened. He gained 5 yards and possibly more on that pass. We had two timeouts at that point. Enough time for three shots to the end zone, plus the extra timeout. Brady knows the situation, he's the only one who can throw the ball away or make a play to the end zone.

There was no excuse for the team not to call a TO After the Hernandez catch. For some reason, BB, and he has done this many times in the past seems to like to watch precious seconds tick of the clock to keep timeouts in his pocket when he is better off using the timeout quickly to preserve the clock. It was BB clock mismanagement at it's finest before the half and it cost us huge momentum heading into half time. We score a TD there and go up 17 7 and we are riding high coming into the second half. BB has to correct the clock management issue, it's gone on too long.

The weird part of the whole thing was Brady's unawareness of the clock after he ran, it was like he was in a fog and blanked out. He never used to do this crap in the early days.

 

[IllegalContact]

They is not Brady. That is scheme and game plan and talent or lack thereof driven. All coaching and FO decision making driven.

LOL....its never brady......even though it was last night......

but what can be expected from a guy who is so blindly enamored with someone that he would name himself after his hero......a guy whose only deed was to injure someone so that his boy got his chance.....kind of tonya harding/jeff gilooly - like......

I understand you will never be critical of brady.....you are too narrow minded to be so


brady did not make throws that he needed to make last night.....he missed many targets......those misses had nothing to do with what scheme it was.......the only thing that the offense is missing is a WR who brady can just throw it up to, but the problem is that those types of WR's are the first types that brady loses his patience with......

the pats had the pieces active to win the game yesterday......all they had to do was feature less brady and feature more of the young RB's.......the problem is that a brady QB'd team will never run the ball 50 times in a game

 

[upstater1]

Welker, Hernandez, Lloyd isn't chopped liver.

No game breakers. Look at Welker, blows by his guy for a double move, caught from behind. The vast majority of WRs in the league take that to the house.

The Patriots had 3 possession guys out there last night. Two of those (Welker and Hernandez) are among the best possession guys in the league. That's great. But it allows a good D like the Ravens to play differently when they don't have to worry about covering 25 yards downfield. The field contracts.

With Gronk in there, he opens it up a little bit because one of the TEs can go long and clear out space for the other.

 

[Ring 6]

Definite Brady misplays:

Time management at the end of the first half.Several missed throws (some badly).Botched scramble (not the hit the ref one -- that was bad luck).While it's tough to tell from the TV, I further suspect he overlooked a bunch of open receivers (and not just ones wildly out of his progressions). If so, that adds up to a lot of poor plays, both physically and mentally.

Succinctly, you are wrong


Posted from Patsfans.com App for Android

 

[Tunescribe]

LOL....its never brady......even though it was last night......

but what can be expected from a guy who is so blindly enamored with someone that he would name himself after his hero......a guy whose only deed was to injure someone so that his boy got his chance.....kind of tonya harding/jeff gilooly - like......

I understand you will never be critical of brady.....you are too narrow minded to be so

brady did not make throws that he needed to make last night.....he missed many targets......those misses had nothing to do with what scheme it was.......the only thing that the offense is missing is a WR who brady can just throw it up to, but the problem is that those types of WR's are the first types that brady loses his patience with......

the pats had the pieces active to win the game yesterday......all they had to do was feature less brady and feature more of the young RB's.......the problem is that a brady QB'd team will never run the ball 50 times in a game

Do you actually sit in front of a computer and "laugh out loud"? If so, you're even weirder than I thought. Question: who do you think should be playing quarterback for the Patriots? Because, if Brady truly is the over-the-hill choking tool you suggest he is, you must have an alternative in mind. Or is it the offensive coordinator you have a problem with? Hard to tell from your rambles.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

stop blaming injuries......the ravens are without jemeel mcclain and ladarius webb.., so stop....that's why there's a 53 man roster.......you want to add some blame to BB because he had zero WR depth, that's fine (excuse me, but edleman has been hurt enough times where they should have moved beyond him to a real #3...no excuse for that, either)

go back and watch the games, but if you mean to tell me that when the chips are down and things get rough, that brady plays with the same confidence as he did 8-10 years ago, then you're just lying to yourself. the pats got lucky in the AFCC game a year ago......this time they were clearly outplayed by what I call an inferior team.......football is simply not meant to be played that carefully, that cerebrally

Baltimore is clearly not inferior in terms of talent on both sides of the ball. That allowed them to overcome the injuries you sighted. We don't have that margin here apparently by design. Belichick is the one who plays carefully. Eschews emotion too. He made an exception early in Moss' time here and Brady adapted. The exception was short lived because by 2009 he realized Moss was no longer a consistent game changer. Yet he continued to lean on an offense that covered for his defense now in belated transition despite being given little more to work with (rookie rb's BB struggled to trust, old cerebral pal buddy whose legs were heading down the back 9, a BB binky who was an impossible fit for this offense, a McD binky who fancies himself a #1 but is barely a #3, his ever growing collection of swiss army knives who are situationally intriguing but limited and not effective when overused).

If that's your issue than Belichick is the guy you should be addressing it to. He admires talent but he's devoted to scheme above all else. Some of the talent he has had here over the years even bristled over that. Some making the chicken and egg analogy. Scheme has increasingly carried the day here, to a point. That point seems to be come playoff time, particularly when talent matchups just don't clearly jive. Baltimores talent struggles against TE's and against speed. We have little of either functionally when Gronk is out and Vereen isn't utilized. On defense we struggle with pass rush and deep balls. Absent a healthy Jones and once Talib went down all the scheming in the world became moot as it just exposed the middle of the field in a panic to avoid being beat deep.

 

[jnug]

I wonder if the Pats were surprised by the success they were having on the ground. They did not exploit that as much as they could have or should have. On the other hand, maybe switching gears that fast is just to much to ask. However if you are going to live by the pass then you can't fall apart because the TE is out with an injury. Without a legit downfield threat, if Gronk is injured that receiver corp is a house of cards.

Lloyd is not the answer. Welker is past it as a playmaker although I expect him to continue to make his zillion catches during a season. In all honesty that is not what football is about...it is about making plays. Hernandez for his part can be controlled when Gronk is out. Edelman would have helped but seriously....how long does Edelman last in game like this. He can't stay on the field in the regular season.

I don't believe Brady is choking but if the expectation is that he is going to put the ball in a window 1' on a side every throw....I think that expectation is unjustified.

 

[Kontradiction]

I didn't see a lot of guys open.

You didn't see a lot of guys open because there weren't many. The Ravens locked our guys down in the second half. Once Welker and Hernandez were taken away, the Pats had nobody that could beat the press. Lloyd was thought to be that guy but he simply is not. That's not on Brady. That's on the staff for failing to get him that guy when it's pretty clearly been a need for the last couple of years.

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

Semi-related, Bill Barnwell at Grantland posted how we look at QBs careers (e.g. Matt Ryan, Peyton Manning) and how much of that view is defined by what happens early in their careers. To help illustrate the point, he looks at Brady's playoff performances in reverse and how that would change the narrative on him. Here is the excerpt:

You in Reverse

When discussing the clutch records of athletes like Matt Ryan and LeBron James in the past, I've brought up the idea of looking at Tom Brady's playoff record in reverse chronological order to highlight just how much of our opinions on athletes can be defined by what they do early in the "big moments" of their career. Just for fun, since we're all trying to figure out what this round of playoffs means for the legacies of guys like Ryan, Joe Flacco, and Peyton Manning, let's actually go through year-by-year and see what opinions might have cropped up with regard to Tom Brady if we flipped his 13-year career on its head. I promise that I will only be as jaundiced in the descriptions as most people would be about the likes of Ryan and Manning. You can play along with his playoff game log here.

2012
Record: 1-1
Career-to-date: 1-1

Brady makes his playoff debut and easily dispatches the Texans at home, but despite the fact that his Patriots are heavy home favorites against the Ravens, New England loses when they fail to produce in the red zone. Brady shows his inability to handle pressure situations when he mismanages the clock at the end of the first half and has to settle for a field goal, a problem that should hopefully go away when he matures. The Patriots have a shot late in the game, but an ill-timed Brady interception* puts New England's title hopes to rest.

* Yes, Brady's interception was on a tipped pass. Is that much worse than Ryan's interception against the Niners (which came when his receiver slipped) or Manning's pick-six against the Ravens (when the ball bounced off his receiver's chest)?

2011
Record: 2-1
Career-to-date: 3-2

Although Brady takes a leap forward and makes his first Super Bowl, his performance during the playoffs leaves a bit to be desired. Brady runs up his stats against the lowly Broncos and Tim Tebow, throwing for six touchdowns and 363 yards. In the AFC Championship Game, Brady throws two picks against the Ravens and posts a passer rating of 57.5, but his defense bails him out with the famous strip of Lee Evans in the end zone and the Billy Cundiff missed field goal. And despite a stretch of hot play in the second quarter, when he sets a consecutive completions record, Brady comes up short when his team needs him most in the second half, failing to connect with Wes Welker on a long would-be touchdown and failing to protect a lead inside four minutes of the fourth quarter. Brady almost literally hands Eli Manning and the Giants the Super Bowl.

2010
Record: 0-1
Career-to-date: 3-3

In a shocking upset, Brady's Patriots lose as 9.5-point home favorites to the Jets, who befuddle Brady while sacking him five times and forcing an early interception to set the tone. It's Brady's second playoff loss as a heavy home favorite in three years.

2009
Record: 0-1
Career-to-date: 3-4

It's another crushing loss for Brady, who appears to have never recovered after blowing the lead in the Super Bowl and failing to hit Welker with the game on the line. He turns over the ball four times, including three times on the first four drives, as the Patriots fall to 2-3 at home in the playoffs under Brady.

2007
Record: 2-1
Career-to-date: 5-5

The ultimate regular-season superstar comes up short yet again on the big stage. After a stunning 16-0 season earns Brady his first MVP award, a mediocre playoff run ends in failure for the Patriots. Sure, Brady beats up on the AFC South at home, as he throws for 262 yards and three touchdowns against the Jaguars, but what happens when the competition gets tougher? He throws three picks against the Chargers in the conference championship and only wins because he's playing a guy on a torn ACL. And while Brady manages to finally beat the Giants for the first time in Week 17, he still can't beat them when it really counts, as the perfect team falls just short. Brady can only muster a measly 5.5 yards per attempt as he endlessly checks down and scores just 14 points.

2006
Record: 2-1
Career-to-date: 7-6

Can Tom Brady ever beat a Manning brother? First, it was Eli. Now, it's big brother Peyton getting into the act, as the Colts launch a dramatic comeback in the AFC Championship Game to produce a 38-34 victory. Again, Brady beats up on the league's weaklings before playing worse in each successive game; he throws for 212 yards and two scores against the Jets, but then has another three-pick game against the Chargers in a contest where the Patriots only pull the game out after the Chargers try to return Brady's final pick deep in the fourth quarter and Troy Brown manages to strip the ball loose. In that AFC Championship Game, Brady fumbles a snap into the end zone that's recovered for a touchdown — wouldn't a clutch player be able to hold onto a snap? He also gets a pick-six to eventually go up 21-6 heading into halftime, but the Patriots blow a 15-point lead and lose when Brady fails to come through with a lead on third-and-4 inside of three minutes, giving the ball to Manning and setting up a game-winning score. Is he ever going to have a big drive when his team really needs it?

2005
Record: 1-1
Career-to-date: 8-7

Yawn. The book on Tom Brady's already been written. Sure, he throws for 201 yards and three touchdowns against the Jaguars at home in an early-round victory. Who doesn't beat up on the weaklings of the AFC South? When he has to travel on the road to play the Broncos, though, Brady puts up an empty 341 yards as he throws two picks, including one in the Denver end zone that Champ Bailey returns 99 yards to the 1-yard line on a drive that would have given New England the lead. The Patriots never recover.

At this point, Brady's playoff reputation is something resembling Peyton Manning. He's the guy who beats up on weak links and never shows up when his team really needs him. He's got various maladies: He can't beat the Giants or can't beat a Manning brother, he chokes when his team is a huge favorite at home, he can't produce a drive to kill off a game, he's distracted by his model wife. In what approximates a full season, Brady's line is good, but not great: 363-583 (62.3 percent completion percentage), 3,998 passing yards, 31 touchdowns, 19 interceptions. That's too many picks for a guy who averages only 10 interceptions per year. Antsy New England fans call for Bill Belichick's head because they want a head coach who has proven he can win Super Bowls.

And yet, despite the fact that you "know" Tom Brady, that he's the guy who can't come up with the big win, that he's just another quarterback who looks better in fantasy football than at the helm in the real thing, Tom Brady goes 9-0 in his next nine playoff games and wins three Super Bowls. He throws 11 touchdowns against three interceptions. He beats teams on the road. At home. As a favorite. As an underdog. He produces incredible, game-winning drives that will stand the test of time and redefine his legacy. Bizarro Simmons — undergoing a dramatic downward spiral that somehow takes him from hosting a show on ESPN to living in Charlestown and bumming cigarettes outside of Store 24 — has to laugh off years of columns about how he'll never be stupid enough to bet on Tom Brady when it really matters. Brady's career culminates with an incredibly gutsy performance against the Raiders at home in the snow, when he leads his team to a narrow victory before winning the next two games and claiming his third Super Bowl title. His legacy secure, Brady rides off into the sunset victorious.

So, with that all in mind, you should take two things away from this silly exercise. First, what a quarterback does in the playoffs at the beginning of his career isn't any more meaningful than what he does in the middle or at the end of his career. You don't win an extra half Super Bowl if you do it before you turn 25. Second, you don't "know" what a quarterback is going to do in the playoffs because of how he's previously performed in the playoffs. We have 15 games over seven seasons saying that Tom Brady's a playoff flop, and that information means absolutely nothing in determining how Tom Brady would play in the future. Looking at the games under the proper chronological order says just as much: We had nine games suggesting that Tom Brady was unstoppable in the playoffs, and afterward, we've had 15 games implying that he's actually just like any other good quarterback in the postseason. That he's "been there before" means nothing, just like it did in 2001, when Brady made it to the Super Bowl and won it without having been there before. He's still capable of screwing up and making mistakes, as Sunday showed. He's also still capable of being great and winning a Super Bowl. The truth isn't quite as satisfying as a one-word label like "clutch" or "unclutch," but football's a lot more complicated than one-word labels. It deserves better, and just as the likes of Manning and Ryan are demeaned with overly simplistic stories about their playoff performance, so is Brady.

Regards,
Chris

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

We lament the lack of plays made in yesterday's loss and pin a lot of it on Brady. Yet over time we forget the incredible amount of plays made that were critical in winning those first 3 SBs that had nothing to do with Brady (stuffing the Raiders on 3rd-and-1 to get the ball back, setting up the Tuck Rule and Vinatieri's amazing 45yd FG; the two special-teams TDs vs. Pittsburgh, Vinatieri's game-deciding 46yd FG against Tennessee in the ice cold, the running game taking over for a struggling Brady in the 2nd half vs. the Colts in the divisional a year later).

A little more team execution in their final games the last several seasons and Brady's narrative is cemented as the G.O.A.T. A little less execution in those first 3 title runs and Brady's narrative changes to goat.

Regards,
Chris

 

[coolguy]

Tom brady did not choke....his receivers simply got abused mentality.


The refs let ravens abuse the hernandez/welker/lloyd pass 5 yards all game long and it began take a toll on them.

The patriots receivers are not physical enough to take those hits like the steelers.