Read more carefully. I've consistently compared Caldwell to Givens, never to Branch.
And you choose to compare him to 2005 Givens which was not his best or one of this teams best seasons but whatever works... And the adage that statistics are just a tool is even more evident in football than what I believe is your forte, baseball. Context is everything in this game where 11 guys have to perform in unison consistently, in this case within a very specific system, for stats to amount to much of anything. At the end of the season, when BB reviews these players performances, he does it on a game by game basis and evaluates not just what they did, but asseses what they did in relation to what they were supposed to do and how that effected the overall unit and team performance as a whole. Which is one reason Gabriel is no longer with us.
I don't live in the Boston area; I suspect it's you that needs to get some outside perspective. Read some non-Boston media; pay attention to non-Boston fans. Ponder why it is that players and coaches didn't vote for Brady this year. Look at your own sig line. Use your own eyes. Brady is off this year. His accuracy isn't what it was 2 years ago. Sure his WR's aren't a great group, but he's sometimes missing them when they are wide open. He's not hitting them in stride as much as he did in the past. He's not quite himself. Still very good, but not Brady great.
The outside perspective on this team has consistently been overly simplistic and off the mark. The just don't get it factor - because we aren't sexy enough and don't put up eye popping albeit empty absent the context stats that catch the limited attention of the national media on offense or defense. They have been divided this year between those who predicted Brady could not possibly perform with no significant WR and those who parroted the his favorite receiver is the open one theme, until they realized none of these guys was getting open with any consistency. Same goes for players whose voting record where the pro bowl is concerned is acknowledged to be a half-assed effort bassed as much on recent media spin as anything. And our local media obsessing on body language did him a huge disservice, as they often do in an attempt to dispel any appearance of homerism. Brady un-nerves them all on many levels, and in no small part because of his team first and cap friendly aw-shucks approach to a me-centric game where quantifiable talent is supposed to be valued over the intangibles that result in a 6th rounder showing them all up. Brady is navigating a season where 80% of his WR corps turned over, mostly on the fly, in a precision and timing based, read and react offense. Behind a line whose performances in pass protection alone have been inconsistent to say the least and abyssmal against speed rushers. (Did you hear the broadcast nitwits yesterday touting that units performance in the Brady era...
He fronts an offense with not a single player who even sniffs a pro bowl nod through five playoff seasons in 6 years winning 3 championships. And you believe it's suddenly some deficiency in him that precludes routinely hitting guys who have struggled all season to be open let alone where they were supposed to be in stride? LOL
To be clear: I believe the bulk of the fall off in the passing game productivity is because we lost Branch and didn't replace him. It would be convenient to stop there, but it also appears that Brady's contribution is down a bit this year as well, as evidenced by slightly reduced accuracy.
I'm not the only one on this board who who feels that way.
Or it could be unfamiliarity with a revolving corps of JAG WR's, but as you say that explanation may just be too simple or convenient for some of our deep thinkers to grasp. And we all know the significance of the feelings of internet board posters in effectively analyzing player performace.
I've actually not posted any statistical analysis about Brady's year. Nor will I. I only came to the defense of Caldwell when what I saw on the field didn't support the scathing attacks on him in this forum. When I looked, stats supported what I observed, so I posted them. I wrote a while ago that Caldwell looked like a decent replacement for Givens. Period. That irritated some here who wanted to blame the front office for all the problems the passing game has had this year.
But perhaps you believe that Brady can do no wrong? That he can never have a down year, only up years? That he gets full credit for all success, but is immune from any criticism? If so, I'm certainly not going to argue with you.
I think Brady's great, but he's only human. It looks to me that he's not having a great year by his standards. Some of the responsibility is his. Sorry if you find that thought offensive.
Caldwell played well yesterday, really stepped up. But he was seriously MIA for the two preceding games. He's been up and down, but hopefully yesterday he finally turned a corner. We'll know soon enough if he performs as well consistently in the playoffs as Given always did, although if not I fully expect some here to point the finger at Brady even though the stats when taken in context including the entire performance circumstances will belie that.
Carson Palmer made the pro bowl although his team didn't make the playoffs. What part his December swoon (56% completion rate, 77 passer rating, 6TD to 5 INTS + 5 fumbles) played in that collapse is debatable I guess given his pro bowl weaponry vs. a dysfunctional organization. He's a better pure passer than Brady, as is Manning and as was Marino over Montana. But the selection isn't for pro bowl passer, it's pro bowl QB. Brady down the stretch with his top TE and defacto #1 receiver and rookie RB sidelined for much of the month competed 66%, compiled a 90 passer rating, 4TD/1 Int/3 fumbles and his team won 12 games under duress in a tougher division in the same conference. Yet he didn't make the cut for the beauty contest. Go figure. I guess it's a combination of not matching up well enough against flash (vs. Manning and Palmer) and too much boring, plodding consistency (vs. Rivers and Palmer). It's that consistency that leads BB to periodically remind us there is no other QB he would rather have leading this team.
Take away a couple of perenial pro bowl weapons from any of those 2006 Pro Bowl QB's and I guarantee you their passer rating plummets to something south of what Brady has consistently maintained without ever having any. Which is also why he already has 3 rings and they and their teams despite impressive offensive production statistics and gaudy passer ratings don't have any.
Passing
Year Team G GS Att Comp Pct Yds YPA Lg TD Int Tkld 20+ 40+ Rate
2001 NE15 14 413 264 63.9 2843 6.88 91 18 12 41/216 32 6 86.5
2002 NE 16 16 601 373 62.1 3764 6.26 49 28 14 31/190 37 3 85.7
2003 NE 16 16 527 317 60.2 3620 6.87 82 23 12 32/219 44 8 85.9
2004 NE 16 16 474 288 60.8 3692 7.79 50 28 14 26/162 52 10 92.6
2005 NE 16 16 530 334 63.0 4110 7.75 71 26 14 26/188 59 9 92.3
2006 NE 16 16 516 319 61.8 3529 6.84 62 24 12 26/175 46 8 87.9
TOTAL 96 94 3064 1896 61.9 21564 7.04 91 147 78 182/1150 270 44 88.4
Third best completion percentage of his career, behind the glory years of a back to back SB Champion WR corps anchored by Branch and Givens (2003 and 2004). Slightly below his 2005 performance with them in a pass first by necessity (because we had no running game to speak of) offense, although his TD to INT ratio was off in '05 by his preferred 2 to 1 standards. Brady's never been about flash and awe, rather substance and consistency including particularly in the face of adversity. Nobody's perfect, which is why Belichick will take the guy who delivers most with the least most consistently.
