What a bad performance by Brady

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

I never really followed the Celtics, but I don't recall Red eviscerating Larry's team during their run. Smaller team so if he had the dropoff likely would have been more readily apparent. Ditto Orr who ended up leaving near the beginning of the exodus the Bruins have never really recovered from as a franchise. Papi has 1 championship under his belt and is likely wishing he wasn't so quick to sign on for the long haul. He was clearly depressed as this second season removed from the 1 in 86 and done season wound down.

Brady was very disappointed to see his 2 top WR and a PK he had come to rely on implicitly gone as this season opened. But he shook it off and publicly restated his faith in the FO that constructed 3 Championship teams in his first 6 seasons here. He also cautioned us that while he would make it work and he had faith it would, it would take time. Even after the Minnesota blowout last week he again cautioned that this team remained some weeks away from being all it could be.

I don't think he looked depressed let alone defeated at all Sunday night. Frustrated at times, as were we all, although he is better than any QB I've ever seen at shaking that off and not making a spectacle of his frustration. His temperment is exceedingly level. That is what his teamates draw off of at crunch time. Yet oddly that leads to some here slamming him for not being emotional enough. Pats 1 was incensed that he was smiling as he was chatting with Manning as the game ended and again in his post game PC. I guess he wanted anger and devastation. Sometimes Tommy just can't win with the overbearing fan base no matter what he does. For them if we win it's a team effort, and if we lose he sucks! While his receivers only drop passes that they should not have been expected to extend for. All I know is if Mannings receivers weren't closet circus performers he'd have been the QB on the short end of the stick Sunday night. And somebody would likely have had tire track marks to deal with post game.

Brady is as level headed as you will find in this sport! I just can't find much to blame Brady for in that loss. He made a couple ill advised throws, as any QB, including Manning, will do. He has a gypsy caravan of 'skill players' that recently rolled into town. Some of them are just not all that skilled, but will eventually succeed because of the system. This makes it tough because currently they clearly don't know the system as well as they need to. And then there's Faulk.

Honestly, I am not sure I can put a lot of blame on the coaching either. They didn't cause the turnovers. I think they would have run the ball more if they were ahead on the scoreboard more.

I sure would love to see Brady have a consistent line-up around him on offense, but I realize that is not the system here.

We are lucky as hell to have an easy schedule this year, and fortunate to be 6-2. Hopefully it will get worked out before the playoffs.

But Brady is not 'depressed'. He just needs to find a way to win with the group of guys he has, and that is tougher than anything Manning has ever done in his professional career.

 

[PrairiePat]

Brady was fine. He made some great throws (for example, the 3rd and 20 to Gabriel on the sidelines early, the thread-the-needle pass to Watson on the last drive). No QB is going to put the ball on the numbers every time (Manning certainly didn't), and you have to expect your receivers to be in the right places and catch the ball. If we get some catches like Harrison and that backup tight-end made for Indy, we're not even having this discussion.

To review:
Interception #1 - Brady throws to a deep corner where no Patriot is. I'm guessing either a receiver should have been there, or Brady just made a mental mistake. We'll probably never know, because nobody on the Pats will tell us.

Interception #2 - Brady's primary receiver is Watson, who is singled up on the middle linebacker, running a post down the middle. TB threw this pass when Watson was even with the LB, expecting him to break away as he got downfield. But the LB kept up with Watson (good defense) and pressured Watson into tipping the high pass rather than catching it. Hard to fault TB on this one; I've seen some posters claim it was 'triple coverage', but the 2 safeties were both late in arriving and didn't impact the catch attempt at all - they were just around to pick up the tipped ball.

Interception #3 - Ball is tipped at the line by a sideways moving defensive lineman, a one-handed wave that just got lucky. Of course, the deflected pass dropped right into an Indy LB's hands. Last week Brady was 'on fire' and the tipped pass went right into Gabriel's hands, this week he was 'terrible' because the tipped pass went to the defense.

Interception #4 - Faulk drops a slightly high dumpoff pass from TB with nobody near him. This is the same Faulk who snatched a pass out of the air last week which was much more poorly thrown and turned it into a big gainer. Last week Brady was 'on fire' because Faulk made the play, this week he was 'terrible' because Faulk couldn't handle an easier pass.

Basically, we had some bad luck and some questionable receiver play. I'm sure Brady will be fine