The moment Tom Brady became Tom Brady

[Off The Grid]

For the last 5 Wins he has 2 TD and 5 INTs. There was not any major reason to see greatness in Brady yet in 2001 for the entire regular season.

For me Brady was starting to become legend in the playoffs that year (with an assist with an OK relief appearance from Drew who accounted for ONE of the teams THREE Offensive TD of the entire playoffs.

So Brady led just 2 TD drives in the playoffs and one was off a short field that the D provided. (started around the STL 37 or something)

Even after winning the SB there was still people questioning. I think Brady played pretty darn good in 2002 but the team was not good enough. And 2003 that was an overall team dominance including a becoming great QB.

It was only after the 2004 season playoff run and SB 39 win where it became even "OK" to start saying who would you want "Manning/Brady"... The third SB put that it play. There was no substantive "GOAT" talk yet. Every once in a while people would say he seemed like "Joe", but they would with the other side of their mouths still call it "blasphemy"

Speak for yourself.

By the end of 2004, when you say it was "OK" to compare Brady and Manning , I was saying that the debate was emphatically over...and that GOAT talk was in play.

Field Generalship trumps Stats.

Don't you know that, yet?

Brady the "Field Manager" destroyed Manning the Stat Racker in the early years.

Just because you didn't recognize that something special was going on with Brady and with this team...didn't mean that others didn't.

Mind you: Anyone who claims that they anticipated The Dawning of a New Era when we were 5-5 is full'f ****...But the Historical Inflection Point was Game One of The Brady Era ~ Game One ~ when the allegedly hopeless, hapless and 2-14 Destined 11.5 UnderDog Patriots went up against the 44 Point-Averaging Super Bowl Bound Colts, rallied behind their first true Field General...and slaughtered them!!

I remember exactly where I was standing and who I was talking to and what we were talking about when I watched Bryan Cox lay that Hit on Jerome Pathon...

And I remember exactly how that moment felt.

But it wasn't just Defense, baby!! I've got a dozen witnesses, every man and woman'f'm wailing and gnashing their teeth when the Rams tied up the Super Bowl at 17-17, certain, they were, that the Patriots were gonna add yet another chapter to their tragic history, who'll tell you that I took center stage and bellowed "NO....this is perfect." because I felt History pivoting on its Axis...because I knew that Brady would deliver.

It's perfectly OK that it took you a few years to catch on...But you should probably spare yourself the shame of lashing out at those with the Balls and Vision to imagine a SeaChange...and to behold it when it actually came about.

 

[BostonWolverine]

2000 Orange Bowl, when he came back from two different 14 pt deficits (sound familiar?) vs Shaun Alexander’s Alabama team.

 

[Galeb]

 

[mosslost]

Don't you know that, yet?

I'm just relaying the real history to you dude.

I like Brady better than Manning from the beginning. But what I am relaying to you in the post is historical fact. (No one in the media world gave serious conversation the Manning/Brady discussion until after Super Bowl 39.)
.. You are way "Off the Grid" on this one...

 

[Marko]

Remember when quoting stats from 2001 that this was before the NFL decided to make 300 yard games the norm. I remember 2 things about Brady that distinguished his play early; hi 15-20 yard throws were things of beauty, laser like passes with pinpoint accuracy, and his field vision was incredible, he distributed the ball to all of his weapons which made the other teams defend the whole field. Remember, "Tom Brady's favorite receiver is the open one."

 

[n6249c]

The moment Tom Brady became Tom Brady....

...was the moment his mother delivered.

Since then he has spent four decades refining it.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Wrong! Tom Brady became TB12 in the final moments of the Snow Bowl. He was not having a great game

Huh?!?

NE was playing it pretty conservative in the first half. For once Simms was right -- NE needed to go to the pass and take advantage of the snowy conditions. NE did so and Brady put up over 200 yards in the second half alone (he finished 32 of 52 for 312).

He was also 9-for-9 on the gotta-have-it drive that made it 13-10 and was 8-for-8 on the game-winning drive in OT.

 

[PatsBoy12]

Great thread!

 

[sphen22]

This moment was one that surely gave him a bit of his competitive fire

 

[convertedpatsfan]

That was the moment I when I thought "wow, they might actually win!"

Calm down there John Madden...

That first play on that drive is so important. There's a lot of pressure, and Brady's arm gets hit and then he steps up in the pocket and completes a dump-off. If he gets sacked, I think the team kneels on the ball for overtime, but he makes something out of nothing there.

 

[Uncle Rico]

When he hit Troy Brown running across the middle our house went nuts. We couldn't believe that they would get a shot at a field goal.

Watching the half hour show on SB36 on NFLN Sunday, that play still gave me, you know, goosebumps.

 

[mosslost]

Remember when quoting stats from 2001 that this was before the NFL decided to make 300 yard games the norm. I remember 2 things about Brady that distinguished his play early; hi 15-20 yard throws were things of beauty, laser like passes with pinpoint accuracy, and his field vision was incredible, he distributed the ball to all of his weapons which made the other teams defend the whole field. Remember, "Tom Brady's favorite receiver is the open one."

I'm gonna get flamed. But it is a fact that Tom Brady was basically mediocre to slightly above average his first year starting. The team won those games with maybe SD the first glimpse of the Brady we know.

Our offense was anemic in the playoffs. If Brady had not led the last field goal drive it would have been mostly average year. Basically proved he should start somewhere.

Winning that Super Bowl changed all that for him.

In the final 5 regular season wins, Brady threw 2 TDs and 5 INTs. And he threw One TD in the entire post season. (same as Bledsoe, and the entire offense managed three TDs)

Belichick himself said it was a miracle that team won the Super Bowl.

Does not change that Brady is now the GOAT. It is just everyone around here saying they knew instantly Brady was special are just being silly.

@Off The Grid

 

[Its_The_Patriots]

Tom Brady is an incredibly cool cat.

A sexy cat at that!

 

[Steve102]

Love Drew but I was done as well. They were 0-2. I was expecting 9-7 that year.

If you watch that Jets game, they said Drew was pulled for performance reasons and not the MoLew hit.

I suspect Bill was done too

100% agree. I think Tom's performance made it easy for BB to not have a repeat of the Kosar situation. I think the hit moved up the timetable a season, maybe 2.

I vividly remember that game, I attended with my father. Brady walked on the field, and I said "Well, let's see how this guy does." Little did we all know, right?

What a treat it has been to watch this guy do his thing.

 

[SammyBlueCat]

A sexy cat at that!

<<<GASP!!!>>>

 

[Off The Grid]

I'm gonna get flamed. But it is a fact that Tom Brady was basically mediocre to slightly above average his first year starting. The team won those games with maybe SD the first glimpse of the Brady we know.

Our offense was anemic in the playoffs. If Brady had not led the last field goal drive it would have been mostly average year. Basically proved he should start somewhere.

Winning that Super Bowl changed all that for him.

In the final 5 regular season wins, Brady threw 2 TDs and 5 INTs. And he threw One TD in the entire post season. (same as Bledsoe, and the entire offense managed three TDs)

Belichick himself said it was a miracle that team won the Super Bowl.

Does not change that Brady is now the GOAT. It is just everyone around here saying they knew instantly Brady was special are just being silly.

@Off The Grid

*Shrugging*

Props to a guy who puts forth an unpopular opinion. That I respect!!

And indeed I feel obliged to award Double Word Score ~ Judgemental Prick that I am ~ to anyone with the testicular fortitude to directly challenge moi, not because I am such a fearsome adversary ~ my attention span is not exactly remarkable ~ but because of course one doing so must bear the crushing burden of being wrong.

You're entitled to your opinion, man. But I think you're a thousand miles off the track, and I question whether or not you were actually around, watching those games...and if you were, and think that he was mediocre or average in 2001, I believe that your perception ~ to give you an "out" ~ has been retroactively twisted by the spectacular statistics that Brady's produced since The Dead Ball Era ended in 2004.

Anyone with a substantial understanding of the game and who was watching in 2001 saw the lights come on when Brady replaced Bledsoe.

You're entitled to your opinion, man, and I'm not gonna hate...

But to think that the guy who drove it down the field in the snow against the Raiders...twice...and who then drove it down the field to win the Championship against the Rams was mediocre...tells me all I need to know about your judgement.

 

[sean10mm]

Tom Brady Stats | Pro-Football-Reference.com

People's perceptions of Brady now are skewed by the inflation of passing numbers in general in the last decade+. By passer rating, 2001 Brady was already more efficient than league average (100= league average for the season in the table I linked to), though he played a relatively conservative style then.

The 2004 season is when you see the first big jump in his across-the-board numbers for a season vs. league average - his ANYA+ in 2004 is basically indistinguishable from his ANYA+ in 2015, and nobody was calling Brady a "mediocre bus driver game manager" that year.

 

[IllegalContact]

Can we merge this with the Brady / daughter thread and then maybe talk about how much longer Brady might play?

 

[mosslost]

*Shrugging*

lol

 

[mosslost]

I question whether or not you were actually around, watching those games

been watching the Pats since 74. Watched every game in 2001. And I am 100% correct in my assessment.