Tom Brady: The Game Following a Bad Performance

[Jercules]

I'd just like to echo what I'm sure has been mentioned several times by now: When?

Tom Brady really wasn't an elite QB until 2004 (give or take a year--I'm sure opinions will vary). I'd like to know how likely it is that this Tom Brady, 2011/2012 Tom Brady, can overcome a poor playoff performance.

And BTW, for those of us who watched the game; is it just me, or was he really not that bad? Both interceptions were a case of him being overly ambitious, but otherwise he had the offense moving. You play that game again, and I bet they whip Baltimore (whereas last year, against the Jets, he had a genuinely bad day that was much worse than the stats reveal--remember the yards and TD he got in garbage time).

 

[RobertWeathers]

Stats-smats, It's pretty simple. If Brady plays like he did against the Broncos, we win, if he plays like he did against the Ravens, we lose.

I don't think the Giants are appreciably better than the Ravens.

Sure, Brady needs to plays better but if the D plays very well they still win.

Giants are overrated.

 

[goheels22002]

Say WHAT?

The bomb to Slater was a terrible risk to take. You have the ball at mid-field, mid 4th Q, the other team has no quick strike offense, so you methodically take the ball down the field instead of madly bombing into double coverage at a guy with one catch on the year.

Horrible risk to take, one of the worst play calls ever, and you are the first person I know of that things it was the right play call.

Great, great work by the opening poster on this thread.

I agree that the play call, or Brady's decision, to heave that one into the end zone was an awful decision at the time. But as far as interceptions go, 1) it wasn't a terrible throw right into the hands of a DB, so it wasn't poor execution; 2) the interception was the most spectacular play of the playoffs by the two DBs of the Ravens.

That interception lead to the heart-stopping finish that was entirely unnecessary if they stuck to the short game in front of Ray Lewis and to running the ball which was effective in the 2nd half against the Ravens.

But I do not see that play as Brady playing poorly. Brady fired that baby where it needed to be, betting on the fact that the Ravens would let Slater go deep as a decoy. It's still surprises me that they had two guys on Slater downfield on first down. If Smith drops off, the ball falls harmlessly to the ground. But then, the scoreboard man (or woman) wouldn't have had his or her chance to flicker the lights and mess with the downs and cheat the Ravens out of a trip to the Super Bowl.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

I had a bad dream last night.

There was a lot going on - I don't know whether I was home or "out" somewhere. Sometimes I was channel surfing (while the SB was on!) sometimes I had to catch little pieces of the game through a storefront window, in between errands.

It was really great at first, like the Donks game. We were up 3-0, we were up 10-0, we were up 21-3... then I was shocked when I got back to the game at the end. Final score 27-21 (and we lost it to the Steelers, because my dreaming brain couldn't figure out that there was no way to play the Steelers in the SB.)

I was so, so happy when I woke up.

What I want to know is when I wake up from this bad dream I've been having since '07.

Funny... I bought a condo in 05 that's lost almost half its value. But I'm trying to still wake up from a football game that didn't go our way.

That ain't right.

PFnV

 

[JoeSixPat]

I appreciate Ll the hard work that went into the research for this post, but we all know there's one very simple explanation for Brady's poor performance.

He was clearly thrown off by the scoreboard showing the wrong down.