Is Brady having some subpar games? Or is he physically declining.

[Redman443]

Ah ol magical 41. I remember in 2010 when Brett Favre was playing in the freezing cold and his arm had turned purple and took a huge hit against the bears. He was never the same again and retired for good. I read an article on pats pulpit that said that Brady has been playing as an above average QB this year but not an ELITE QB as we’ve expected to see from him every year. I am not sure how to take this, Could we see a repeat of 2014 and the Brady that we are used to seeing comes out? Or is this the beginning of the end? Should we be thinking about a new QB in the draft next year? I really want Brady to have 6 before he retires but we usually win the super bowl when we host the AFC championship game and the only games I see the chiefs losing at this point are against Baltimore and the Rams.

 

[signbabybrady]

He's fine. There's only 3 targets on this team trustworthy and we've barely had any games with the 3 on the field.

 

[Redman443]

He's fine. There's only 3 targets on this team trustworthy and we've barely had any games with the 3 on the field.

It just seems like there’s many throws that he’s historically easily made are not being made this year. Not saying he is bad like 2015 Peyton manning bad but he isn’t what we normally see.

 

[Angelpats]

There are a few ducks but he always has those once in a while. It’s more decision making and not spreading it around, and ol play, and the occasional bad play calling, like going deep on 3 and shorts.

 

[chasa]

the biggest issue sunday was the o-line. there were free rushers on every other snap.

 

[Guts]

I don't see the physical decline personally. What I saw was all three phases of the team being outplayed ny the Titans. Tom had a bad game but so did everyone else

 

[BradyFTW!]

This stretch has come in conjunction with a bunch of his best weapons being hurt, playing some good pass defenses, no credible rushing threat, and major offensive line injuries/illnesses.

For I'm not pounding the panic button yet, there's still of time to right the ship. That said, the overall drop in production is impossible to ignore. It's definitely possible that the decline has begun, but I'd caution anyone against making sweeping declarations around that since the sample size is still very small. Leave that stuff to morons like Shannon Sharpe, who basically get everything wrong for a living.

 

[Patstopia]

Well you take a damn good pass rush, subtract 2 starters from the OL. Throw in some injuries and shake well. You end up with a brutal ass kicking.
Now you have two choices, is this team the one that played the Titan's? Or is this team the one that won seven other games.
Unfortunately for the board next week is a bye, so for two solid weeks everyone will hear about this loss, the lions loss and complain about BB, TFB, and every decision the team made in last decade that they don't agree with. And then after the bye the fun begins again.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Brady seems okay to me physically, but his decision making has been subpar at times. WR’s not getting consistent separation doesn’t help. Playcalling has been really bad at times too like the goaline goof against Green Bay.

 

[Ras-IR Dowling]

the biggest issue sunday was the o-line. there were free rushers on every other snap.

Exactly. It’s not that he doesn’t trust guys like hogan and dorsett, he doesn’t trust the OL to give him the time he needs to find those guys. It’s why he looks skiddish when his first read isn’t open even though the pressure may not be there.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

I think there’s something going on. Age? Unreported injury? Who knows? But there have been noticeably more “receiver is open at short/medium range and the ball is 3 feet to the right. Or 4 feet short.” passes, even when he’s not under pressure, this year.

For me a telling one this week was the pass to White near the sideline that Fouts claimed was a “throwaway”. If it was a throwaway that’s odd because White was open enough that Brady in the past would have rifled it in there. And if it wasn’t a throwaway it was a stunningly bad throw.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

He's fine. There's only 3 targets on this team trustworthy and we've barely had any games with the 3 on the field.

Brady has always had a reputation of making average players look good. The fact that Gronk, Edelman, and Gordon have not been on the field together much should not be an excuse. He's won and played well with much less. The offensive line is another story though.

 

[Uptown]

Here’s Something To Put Patriots’ Offensive Road Woes In Perspective

 

[SHOWTIME15]

We see a lack of depth on this team. For NE to look good, all the starters have to be there. I mean you lose Isaiah Wynn for the season and you get stuck with LaAdrian Waddle as your best backup OL, it's a problem. Same thing with Gronk - if he's not there then you're stuck with Dwayne Allen. When Edelman was gone, our best WR was Hogan etc.

 

[BradytoMosstoGronk]

Definitely some off-target throws and misses yesterday, but there were drops, receivers slipping, exceptional coverage, free rushers, no Mason and Waddle having to take over at times.

If Brady’s stat line starts looking consistently like yesterday’s with clean pockets and none of the OL/receiver issues from yesterday, then I’d start worrying.

 

[Jangles]

He's fine. There's only 3 targets on this team trustworthy and we've barely had any games with the 3 on the field.

There’s more that are open he just either won’t throw to them, or doesn’t see them.

Definitely some off-target throws and misses yesterday, but there were drops, receivers slipping, exceptional coverage, free rushers, no Mason and Waddle having to take over at times.

If Brady’s stat line starts looking consistently like yesterday’s with clean pockets and none of the OL/receiver issues from yesterday, then I’d start worrying.

He has one TD in 3 games. That doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world, but that’s hardly an encouraging statistic

 

[Shockt327]

Yeah, I'm not hitting the panic button just yet either, but I am pretty concerned. In prior years, we've seen Brady still play at an elite level without Gronk and/or despite poor blocking too. So, his game has certainly fallen, imo, but I feel like I can't pinpoint what exactly is off. Is it age? injury? O-line? lack of open targets? All of the above? Mental? Physical? I'm not sure. But something is off.

He looks off uncharacteristically off-balance - even w/o pressure - on some throws.
Some throws, even the short throws outside the numbers, are unusually inaccurate
I've seen him looking at the O-line on some snaps, particularly, RT, on his dropback.
He's hanging on to the ball for too long on certain snaps.

But, even if it is mainly the O-line play/lack of targets to blame, then I still can't help but think Brady's reaction to it is less than what we've seen in the past.

 

[varjao]

He's had some bad games like yesterday and the Lions game, some ok games and some good games.

Anyway, in all games so far he made mistakes and missed passes that we are not used to see him missing. There is a good amount of passes he's throwing that the ball is not getting that tight spiral that Welker once said it looked like the ball was going to cross the receiver's body

 

[tasmlab]

the biggest issue sunday was the o-line. there were free rushers on every other snap.

Agree. 3 out of 5 starters on the OL were basically out. Brady's passes would be better and the RBs would've done better with a healthier line.

 

[brdmaverick]

I know we can easily point to Gronk being out as the reason for the poor performance, but I still think they should look better even with him missing.

After all, with Edelman, Gordon, J.White, C.Hogan, and P.Dorsett, I still feel like those are some good weapons. Add in the big play potential of Patterson and I don't think that group is too shabby. Prior to this three game stretch we had a stretch of 40+ points. I don't think it's crazy to think we'll return to form.