Tom Brady played great

[Patdown93]

Brady did a good job of escaping pressure a couple times today. A couple key catches and the discussions on this board about Brady would be very different.

 

[English Patriot]

That's what you call damage to your legacy. When Brady had the deep threat with Moss they scored 14 points in the SB. This year it was 17 pts. with none being scored in the last 25 minutes of the game.
Be curious to know how many plays are being changed at the line by Brady.
This offense is way out of balance run vs pass. They get very predictable as the game goes on. Time for BB to take back the controls of the offense.
Ever since the O became all about Tommy and his arm aka the NE Colts they've won NOTHING!!
Time to evaluate why this offense is unable to control the ball and the clock in critical game situations. They could not put the Giants away when having a 8 point second half lead when given numerous opportunities to do so. They did the very same thing against the Ravens but were saved by the ineptitude of said Ravens. Need an entirely different mindset with this offense heading into next year.

Not on your life, a deep threat or 2 to go with Wes and the 2 incredible TE's (when the main one is ACTUALLY healthy to go) and that offense is unstoppable, seriously if we had a deep threat then we'd be SB champions because you can't cover deep while leaving Aaron, Gronk and Wes the freedom of the park because it's suicide. An elite deep threat commands 2 guys, Gronk commands 2 guys, Wes almost every time commands 2 guys and Hernandez also needs special attention so you can't double cover everyone right?

Imagine this team with Julio Jones per say?

 

[Harry Yelreh]

Brady did a good job of escaping pressure a couple times today. A couple key catches and the discussions on this board about Brady would be very different.

Completely agree. Count me in as someone who thought he played great. To win this game - as so many of us said going in - he needed to be at his absolute best.

The Giants DL and pass rush was everything it was cracked up to be. Brady's pocket presence was as good as ever in this game. Time and again he got out of near impossible situations, bought more time, and fired darts down the field. He set or tied NFL records for longest drive and consecutive completions without his best weapon (Gronkowski) against a D that had been peerless over the last month. He still managed a passer rating of over 90.

The dude is a champion and proved it again. I wouldn't trade him for anyone - not even both Mannings.

 

[JFK]

Brady played average football. He was inconsistent but that is partly due to what he has to work with. Welker is a Slot Receiver. He isn't always going to make catches Outside receivers make. It's been pretty obvious the Patriots were lacking an outside/deep threat receiver. For some reason BB chose to keeo Ocho after overpaying him. He chose not to aggressively go after a WR before the trade deadline knowing we were a playoff team and Brady is getting up there with age.(we had the cap $)....And then he got rid of our fastest WR a day before the SB...He may not have made a difference but what did his replacement do? I don't get why we also wasted a roster spot on Faulk. Dude should have been on the coaching staff this year.

Eli's Outside Receivers gave him the edge over Brady. I don't even think we need to draft/add to our DL. We need a WR, Free Safety and an OLB. We need to move on to Ridley too. Yes he fumbles but he'll get better.

 

[Elijah T.]

I don't think he played great.

He did ok...he didn't lose the game, but he didn't win it either. He wasn't "Big Game Brady".

With all the success in our offense, we still don't have anybody that has the size/strength/speed to beat man coverage or dictate a deep bracket.

Seriously it's almost a miracle we could be this good offensively without having any semblance of a deep passing game or a franchise tailback that can run both inside and out.

Please make a move for Dwayne Bowe, Vincent Jackson, Marcus Colston, or even Reggie Wayne..or trade a draft pick for a legit outside wide out..and find two more receivers early or late in the draft that are at least 6'0 and 200pounds that we can develop.

 

[JFK]

I don't think he played great.

He did ok...he didn't lose the game, but he didn't win it either. He wasn't "Big Game Brady".

With all the success in our offense, we still don't have anybody that has the size/strength/speed to beat man coverage or dictate a deep bracket.

Seriously it's almost a miracle we could be this good offensively without having any semblance of a deep passing game or a franchise tailback that can run both inside and out.

Please make a move for Dwayne Bowe, Vincent Jackson, Marcus Colston, or even Reggie Wayne..or trade a draft pick for a legit outside wide out..and find two more receivers early or late in the draft that are at least 6'0 and 200pounds that we can develop.

But hasn't Coach BB known this for the longest? It upsets me he did nothing to address it. Ocho should have been goneeeeeee.

 

[JMarr]

He just lobbed it up to his star tight end whom he must know is running on a deep pattern on one leg. The badly underthrown ball is then intercepted by the Giant's version of the Hurricane's Colin McCarthy: an inside linebacker so bad, it's only the relative competent talent around him that prevents him from being utterly exposed all game long (notice how he was roasted to a crisp on Hernandez's TD). That, in addition to the terrible, godawful, atrocious grounding for a safety, were certainly significant contributing factors in today's loss.

For portions of the game, Brady was masterful. Unfortunately, a few, consequential moments of ineptitude spoiled his overall brilliance.

Spot-on post. Spotting the Giants 9 points at the outset is an absolute killer that's hard to overcome between such an evenly matched teams. But that's not all on Brady:

In retrospect Welker probably made a poor decision inside the 10 on the punt and gives us horrendous field position (why the f** is Welker suddenly returning punts again ).

Refs call grounding on a 40 yard deep pass. A penalty on that type of throw doesn't get called more often than not.

And the Giants did a good job in scoring easily after the safety.

Team loss, but when you live by Brady you die by Brady.

 

[ATippett56]

The INT aside (which was a ridiculous catch by a linebacker who had concentration like a WR to make the play) he had 2 TD's and nearly 300 yards, if the run game wants to play whack and the D want to let things slip away time after time letting 30+ yard plays beat them all season that's not Brady's fault is it?

The football game is played for four quarters not two offensive drives that result in touchdowns.

 

[RhodyPatriot]

Not on your life, a deep threat or 2 to go with Wes and the 2 incredible TE's (when the main one is ACTUALLY healthy to go) and that offense is unstoppable, seriously if we had a deep threat then we'd be SB champions because you can't cover deep while leaving Aaron, Gronk and Wes the freedom of the park because it's suicide. An elite deep threat commands 2 guys, Gronk commands 2 guys, Wes almost every time commands 2 guys and Hernandez also needs special attention so you can't double cover everyone right?

Imagine this team with Julio Jones per say?

You're making wild assumptions that Mr. Brady is going to be able to deliver the ball to the deep threat. On what do you base that?? The Jints have beaten us with deep threat Moss and without deep threat Moss. In fact The Greatest Show On Turf only put up 14 points in SB42.

Perhaps it's time for the Patriots to stop obsessing over getting Tommy and his arm more weapons and concentrate on building a SB winning team.
That would be a team that can control the ball and control the clock to close out games.

 

[PatriotSeven]

I don't know how people can tell for sure that was an underthrown ball or not for sure. I mean no doubt it fell short of the receiver but, I don't know if he was supposed to to throw it to the back of the endzone, over the defender, knowing Gronk's injury or if he expected Gronk to get underneath his receiver for a jump ball.

I honestly didn't expect Gronk to beat his man in a foot race. That was the only time he did all game. Looked like it, but I also think there was major confusion on that play.

 

[DOGWARZ]

Makes me wonder why, in that situation, teams don't just put 45 guys on the field.

I was thinking the same thing. If there is no time gain for the penalty and it's justb5 yard penalty why not if the opponent is backed up at their own 10 and they have limited time and timeouts. Clock still runs when they hike the ball at least 5 secs.

 

[English Patriot]

You're making wild assumptions that Mr. Brady is going to be able to deliver the ball to the deep threat. On what do you base that?? The Jints have beaten us with deep threat Moss and without deep threat Moss. In fact The Greatest Show On Turf only put up 14 points in SB42.

Perhaps it's time for the Patriots to stop obsessing over getting Tommy and his arm more weapons and concentrate on building a SB winning team.
That would be a team that can control the ball and control the clock to close out games.

So you think Tom Brady in a couple of months is going to turn into a scrub? He's way better than Kurt Warner (who was great himself) so i'm pretty certain that with 1 or 2 deep threats to go along with the most dynamic receiving corps in the league he could easily smash Brees new passing record. He won't flop in the SB like the 'greatest show on turf' did with legitimate outside threats because he's still too damn good.

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Brady is and always will be a QB that is best throwing short to mid range passes.....very rarely does he connect with bombs simply because a younger Moss isn't here anymore and there is no deep threat.

It's pure dumb for that play to Slater and just as bad as that bomb to a well covered Gronk.

Unless we get another deep threat which is missing in big games,Brady should only throw deep in dire circumstances.

 

[English Patriot]

Brady is and always will be a QB that is best throwing short to mid range passes.....very rarely does he connect with bombs simply because a younger Moss isn't here anymore and there is no deep threat.

It's pure dumb for that play to Slater and just as bad as that bomb to a well covered Gronk.

Unless we get another deep threat which is missing in big games,Brady should only throw deep in dire circumstances.

Exactly my friend, throwing bombs to a TE and a ST player is pure illogical but that's all the mans got and no QB could make those throws because Gronk and Slater are not meant for 50 yard bombs downfield so it's not just a Brady thing.

 

[Leemo]

When Welker, Henandez and Branch are dropping easy catches what more do you want from tom? If wes had caught that ball we'd have won the game.

 

[PatriotSeven]

Brady is and always will be a QB that is best throwing short to mid range passes.....very rarely does he connect with bombs simply because a younger Moss isn't here anymore and there is no deep threat.

It's pure dumb for that play to Slater and just as bad as that bomb to a well covered Gronk.

Unless we get another deep threat which is missing in big games,Brady should only throw deep in dire circumstances.

You're contradiction yourself in the same sentence. Brady is whatever the offense is designed to be. When he had Moss he threw more deep passes than anybody and better than anybody. Eli does what he does because he has 2 very solid vertical wideouts.

We don't even have one. We have two very solid TE's and a premier slot receiver. So Brady throws it short. It works better for Brady because more passes are spread out and there's less of a risk of one receiver making a bad play on a critical pass. We let Brady spread it around because he's one of the few QB's in the history of the NFL that can throw this many short passes without making a mistake and he proved he can do it even during the biggest game.

That 96 yard drive was pretty incredible honestly.

Unfortunately it should never come at the expense of your deep ball vertical threat. There's no room on this offense for 2 super wide outs like the Giants have. But we don't even have one. Ocho was supposed to be that guy this year. Didn't pan out that way.

We will fix this next year. Won't be caught with our pants down like this again.

 

[RhodyPatriot]

So you think Tom Brady in a couple of months is going to turn into a scrub? He's way better than Kurt Warner (who was great himself) so i'm pretty certain that with 1 or 2 deep threats to go along with the most dynamic receiving corps in the league he could easily smash Brees new passing record. He won't flop in the SB like the 'greatest show on turf' did with legitimate outside threats because he's still too damn good.

What has Brady shown you since the playoffs in '04 that would lead you to believe the answer here is to focus even more attention on getting Tommy even more toys for the passing game?? They got Tommy all the toys he wanted in '07 and all kinds of records were smashed and what did they win again?? And how well did Brady play in those playoffs even with all those toys?
Ever since the focus of this team became Tom Brady and his arm this team hasn't won a damn thing.
The Patriots offense lost the game last night because they could not control the ball or the clock when it mattered. They has an 8 pt lead with 3 minutes gone in the 3rd qtr and could not score another point and could not put together one or two clock eating drives. A deep threat is not going to change that. A change in organizational mindset and offensive philosophy will.
I said it before the game and I'll say it again. If we see Brady in shotgun with an empty backfield most of the time the Patriots are not winning the Super Bowl. And they didn't!!
This team needs to recommit to the run, recommit to running the O under center, recommit to the use of screens, etc.
For an offense with so many weapons the Patriots become vanilla and are quite predictable in their playcalling. It's become all about Tommy and his arm. Until that changes this team ain't winnin' nuttin'. My hope is that Brady's age is going to force some positive change with this offense.

 

[makoute]

The INT aside (which was a ridiculous catch by a linebacker who had concentration like a WR to make the play) he had 2 TD's and nearly 300 yards, if the run game wants to play whack and the D want to let things slip away time after time letting 30+ yard plays beat them all season that's not Brady's fault is it?

He played good Eli played good but the Giants receivers made plays and Wes couldn't make THE play that kills the game.

He also had a turnover in the endzone, that spotted the giants two points right at the start of the game.

 

[fair catch fryar]

Sorry, but Brady has to share in the blame as much as anyone. He had the most control over the outcome of the game and after laying an egg in the AFCCG and promising to play better, he was mediocre for him and in the SB, mediocre doesn't cut it.

 

[Betterthanmost]

Throughout this postseason, his decision making has been shocking at times, bone headed even. Some of this throws were in Sanchez alley.
If it is the WRs, then lets get it fixed, if not then lets do what the Texans did and fix the defense overnight.