As much as I absolutely hate to say it, Brady has not been playing well this year.

Nehalem said:

I wonder how much of the problem is David Andrew's injury. People have noted that Mason hasn't played as well as last year. How much of that is due to having to cover for Karras?

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I think its a significant part of it.

What makes Andrews a good/ very good center is his mobility, quickness, intelligence and experience calling the protections.

I think Shaq is fighting an injury but losing a player like Andrews can't help.

Hyped said:

This may be an unpopular observation, but this thread is a lot like other threads I read on Drew Bledsoe back in 1997-2001. Many excuses are being made for Brady's sub-par performance like: Back up C, turnstile at LT, no pro bowl battering ram FB, retired HOF TE, no deep threat, etc...etc...

The question should be whether the Brady of old would have been able to make chicken salad out of this chicken poop? Look at the '06 - '07 season....Brady managed to get us out of San Diego alive in the divisional round....can he do that today? I am not so sure....

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You do realize Brady threw 3 interceptions in the SD playoff game right? Including one that would have basically lost the Pats the game, if the SD player hadn't fumbled on the int return.

Issues? Sure.
But, somehow, 9--1.
Doing "just enough" to win? OK. What's the problem with that?
How do they stack up against KC? We'll know in a couple of weeks.
Can they beat the Ravens in the Playoffs? We'll probably know that too in a couple of months.
For now? Dallas.

Hyped said:

This may be an unpopular observation, but this thread is a lot like other threads I read on Drew Bledsoe back in 1997-2001. Many excuses are being made for Brady's sub-par performance like: Back up C, turnstile at LT, no pro bowl battering ram FB, retired HOF TE, no deep threat, etc...etc...

The question should be whether the Brady of old would have been able to make chicken salad out of this chicken poop? Look at the '06 - '07 season....Brady managed to get us out of San Diego alive in the divisional round....can he do that today? I am not so sure....

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I thought Troy Brown did that, Brady had a bad game.

It's all the bad O-Line play. Which then causes us to have ZERO running game and less time on passing plays, as well as kills the play action.

Wynn will be a HUGE addition to the line, now if he can stay healthy, that's another story. He's played 2 out of a possible 26 games. We all know Sony loves running behind the guy, maybe he'll get Sony going again, back to the 2018 Sony. Just stay healthy Wynn !

Dr Pain said:

Chaos on line and in receiving corp. He does not seem as mentally resilient though. He has a history of getting a bit hissy but usually grounds himself again. Its been longer this time. He seems blind to why AB had to go.

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this is exactly what the Bledsoe fanboys said back in 2000. Then, just as soon as Brady started playing, the receivers & OL were perfectly fine. If Jimmy G was the QB, no one would be making these excuses and our QB wouldn’t be limiting the offense to the handful of players in his circle of trust.

PatsFanSince74 said:

Issues? Sure.
But, somehow, 9--1.
Doing "just enough" to win? OK. What's the problem with that?
How do they stack up against KC? We'll know in a couple of weeks.
Can they beat the Ravens in the Playoffs? We'll probably know that too in a couple of months.
For now? Dallas.

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Agreed.
As someone said around here recently, it's amazing what success will do to ya. Back in 2001 when this dynasty was just starting a 7 point win on the road against a tough opponent (who has beaten us the last two times we played them) to get us to 9-1 would have been celebrated from here to kingdom come.
Now everybody (including the QB, at least for a day) is hand-wringing and pointing out everything that is wrong, ad nauseum.
One game at a time got us here and is all we can focus on.
I was thinking this week that I should try just watching the game and not looking at anything in between. I would be a lot happier (but obviously I am addicted to this site).

sportnik said:

this is exactly what the Bledsoe fanboys said back in 2000. Then, just as soon as Brady started playing, the receivers & OL were perfectly fine. If Jimmy G was the QB, no one would be making these excuses and our QB wouldn’t be limiting the offense to the handful of players in his circle of trust.

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It's not the same as Bledsoe. And, if you think that Jimmy G would be doing things differently and better, you haven't been watching him play.

There are certainly some issues and weaknesses including the poor O-line play, lack of a running game, and lack of consistent output from WR aside from Edelman. I just wanted to remind everyone that this team is crushing the rest of the NFL in scoring differential around 29-10 on average and also fielding the second best PPG defense of ALL-Time! Just keepin' it real! Baltimore can be beaten.

His play may be boring right now, but it's still effective.

In the past the defense wouldn't be able to compensate so Brady would have to take more chances on offense.

Right now, he knows he has a defense that is great so there is no need to play anything but conservative.

He plays to the situation.

Do we want it to improve? Certainly

I'm just puzzled by everyone touting Wynn as the savior. Why should we have any confidence he'll be able to stay on the field for more than 1 play nevermind be the O-line savior? Sounds more like wishful thinking on that front.

Hyped said:

This may be an unpopular observation, but this thread is a lot like other threads I read on Drew Bledsoe back in 1997-2001. Many excuses are being made for Brady's sub-par performance like: Back up C, turnstile at LT, no pro bowl battering ram FB, retired HOF TE, no deep threat, etc...etc...

The question should be whether the Brady of old would have been able to make chicken salad out of this chicken poop? Look at the '06 - '07 season....Brady managed to get us out of San Diego alive in the divisional round....can he do that today? I am not so sure....

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Brady had a 57 passer rating with 3 picks in that game so I’m not sure he “managed” anything other than surviving a poor game. Was lucky that his last int was fumbled away or the Pats lose that one.

The dude is 42. I never bought that he was playing till 45. Nobody has ever done that at the most important position in sports and there’s a reason why that is the case. But I want to see how he and the offense do with some stability especially at LT before jumping to conclusions.

PatsDeb said:

Agreed.
As someone said around here recently, it's amazing what success will do to ya. Back in 2001 when this dynasty was just starting a 7 point win on the road against a tough opponent (who has beaten us the last two times we played them) to get us to 9-1 would have been celebrated from here to kingdom come.
Now everybody (including the QB, at least for a day) is hand-wringing and pointing out everything that is wrong, ad nauseum.
One game at a time got us here and is all we can focus on.
I was thinking this week that I should try just watching the game and not looking at anything in between. I would be a lot happier (but obviously I am addicted to this site).

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I'd suggest doing what I have been doing this year.

Grab a glass of wine (or your favorite beverage) and watch a game from 2003 and pretend its from the 2019 season.

Clunky, inconsistent, painful-to-watch offense. Great special teams. Dominant defense which had 5 TDs. ST had 1- Take away 42 points and the total and a Brady-led offense averaged 19ppg. 3.4ypc rushing. 03 offense was 28th in RZ efficiency and 13th on 3rd down.Yuk.

brdmaverick said:

I'm just puzzled by everyone touting Wynn as the savior. Why should we have any confidence he'll be able to stay on the field for more than 1 play nevermind be the O-line savior? Sounds more like wishful thinking on that front.

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We have seen him play and everyone knows he is going to be a big improvement over Newhouse. The only concern is health. But after missing so much time i find it unlikely he goes down again.

venecol said:

Not sure who is crying about only winning by 7. What I've seen are concerns being raised over the anemic offense by the forum geniuses, cable, and online media experts.

You may be perfectly comfortable with the production of this offense in an AFCCG or SB, but many others, including me are not.

If you don't think the offense has issues when even Tom Brady isn't happy then I don't know what to tell you.

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Deus Irae said:

That Brady guy seems to be siding with those noting the struggles of the offense, too.




BUT WHAT DOES THAT GUY KNOW ABOUT FOOTBALL OFFENSE, AND ESPECIALLY THE PATRIOTS' OFFENSE??!!??!!

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I don’t think anyone is disputing the offense is sputtering, some just recognize that is something that happens every year in varying degrees and what happens before thanksgiving rarely has much impact on what happens after. Other than the total of wins and losses.

bormio said:

The team without any offense in 2003 - scored 32 points in the Super Bowl

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And the defense that stunk last year let up 3 in the SB 2 weeks after the team that couldn’t win in the road won in KC.

brdmaverick said:

I'm just puzzled by everyone touting Wynn as the savior. Why should we have any confidence he'll be able to stay on the field for more than 1 play nevermind be the O-line savior? Sounds more like wishful thinking on that front.

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Wynn will help but a pair of Wynn and AB WOULD be the savior.

Ring 6 said:

I don’t think anyone is disputing the offense is sputtering, some just recognize that is something that happens every year in varying degrees and what happens before thanksgiving rarely has much impact on what happens after. Other than the total of wins and losses.

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This is not a standard in-season slowdown. This doesn't happen every year. This is a 2013 level problem. And the nonsense about wins and losses is just that, as Brady and Belichick have made clear, year after year. It's always been about play over record.

****, BB made that clear, way back in 2009.

"Well I tell ya, we've got a long way to go," Belichick told Brady. "We just have no mental toughness. We go on the road we have no mental toughness. We can't play the game the way we need to play it. It's not them either, it's totally us. Just totally us. Gonna have to find a way here to be a tougher team when we get on the road."

Belichick added: "I just can't get this team to play the way we need to play. I just can't do it. So (explicit) frustrating."

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None of that means that things can't get turned around. I expect that they will, at least to some extent. But the folly of dismissing the problems is just that: folly.

Shockt327 said:

Brady's fine, the offense isn't. You just pointed out all the reasons why. I also hope/believe Wynn will made a big difference.

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Any other quarterback playing for us, we'd be 4-5. Maybe 3-6.

Not that we're bad, just that we've got used to him for two decades.

robertweathers said:

I'd suggest doing what I have been doing this year.

Grab a glass of wine (or your favorite beverage) and watch a game from 2003 and pretend its from the 2019 season.

Clunky, inconsistent, painful-to-watch offense. Great special teams. Dominant defense which had 5 TDs. ST had 1- Take away 42 points and the total and a Brady-led offense averaged 19ppg. 3.4ypc rushing. 03 offense was 28th in RZ efficiency and 13th on 3rd down.Yuk.

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Cliff