Is the GOAT playing like one?

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

well who gets the blame for that ?? Brady / BB / Kraft ??

Despite all the success and double digit wins over the past decade the past is still the past and now I blame ownership and F.O. THIS OFFSEASON for giving Brady the over abundance of inexperience and youth that he has to work with,after the Hernandez arrest I was expecting a veteran replacement in some kind of trade to make Brady's final years at QB at least a slightly easier task.

They already knew Gronk was going to be a challenge to get back to 100% and in his history,Amendola had not accomplished a good amount of games healthy so I am sure they knew as well as all of us fans knew it was likely we would not see both Rob and Danny anywhere near all 16 games on the field together.

They are not making Brady's final years easy ..... It's something we have to deal with.

 

[Canuck]

Not sure how this season is going to end but if he continues to win regardless of personal statistics, this might be remembered as one of his best seasons ever.

We as fans see the game from a high point of view, with multiple camera angles with slow motion and instant replay. We don't see the game as Brady sees it at game speed. Sometimes I wonder if the avg couch potato fan has any clue what the game looks like down on the field at game speed.

 

[ausbacker]

IMO, Brady isn't playing well but that's being exacerbated by average line play and the skill position players dropping a plethora of catchable balls. Perhaps the gravest concern should be McDaniels and the game plan. The first game that I was happy with how the Patriots game planned and executed was Atlanta. Thankfully, the D has picked up the slack. We can only hope that something changes on O soon.

 

[SVN]

I read some of the bengals take on this Mike Zimmer's defense carries Cincinnati Bengals; 32 questions - NFL.com

This seems to a very dumbed down version of the pats offense we are used to mainly due to new faces and injuries and such. Brady is at his best when is changing plays and so on a so forth. Right now the skillset and experience of the people he has around limits their ability to much. They have ZERO production from the TE position. Cant emphasize how bad that is for a team built on a 2 TE offense last couple of years. At this point , you can hope it clicks for them eventually and they get better. Gronk will help but not immediately . He hasnt played football in almost an yr except for those 2 snaps vs the texans. Going to take him a while to get back in it. For now they need to some how win the division and then go from there.

 

[hodgey]

I'm one of the biggest TFB fans of all time, but his accuracy has been poor so far this year. I hear about all these drops, but dont get it. I've seen 9' laser bolts to back shoulders when a simple 5'-6' ball in stride scores a TD. TFB usually has impecable ball placement. This year he has not had that. I'm thinking there is an injury we don't know about. BTW the front office sucks balls on this team. TFB probably for the first time in his career has no confidence in management!!

 

[Salva135]

IMO, Brady isn't playing well but that's being exacerbated by average line play and the skill position players dropping a plethora of catchable balls. Perhaps the gravest concern should be McDaniels and the game plan. The first game that I was happy with how the Patriots game planned and executed was Atlanta. Thankfully, the D has picked up the slack. We can only hope that something changes on O soon.

Brady has spent his entire career being lauded for his ability to overcome these issues. You can't use these excuses and then call him the best ever out of the other side of your mouth.

 

[SVN]

Brady has spent his entire career being lauded for his ability to overcome these issues. You can't use these excuses and then call him the best ever out of the other side of your mouth.

He has overcome them over the entire season. He didnt put up insane stats with jags in 5 games in any of those situations either so need to wait the whole season.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Perfect anti-Brady storm. Pressure up the middle, AND LT and LG went to hell in protection. Injuries...No TE outlet...No RB outlet. Played to Brady's big weakness. Unlike Farve or Rthlsbrgr Brady cannot move out and make time. His other weakness is that he is not an improviser. He follows the script albeit 5 layers deep in alternatives but still the script. With rookies getting open but in unplanned spaces, he does not compute. He needs to work harder on adaptation.

 

[bigballas]

This is something I do disagree with. No way in hell should he stop taking that zip off the ball. Especially when you consider redzone situations and when we get back our short yardage and interior passing game.

The rookies need to learn how to handle that, and time his passes. You start floating balls out there, bad things happen.

I don't see us moving away from the type of offense we had. I see us extending it with a vertical passing game. We're only limited to that right now just because of our injuries to our slot guys and TE's.

But I wouldn't trade our previous fast paced offense for what we have right now. I will easily trade it for what we had PLUS the vertical threat which our rookies will give us.

But to have all that, it's going to require precision and zips from Tom that hit so hard it feels like they get gut punched in short yardage situations. It's the only way to really beat some of the coverage in those situations and what allowed him to do it so consistently over the years.

Just stop letting the ball get past your hands. Learn to catch bullets. Quick release and ball velocity are completely intertwined, so if he slows down, both of those things slow down. That's going to cause issues in the pocket, with batted passes and fumbles, as well as in the air on the catching side.

I'd still rather see a drop than an interception.

Hmmm, while I agree he should float the balls...I've been thinking a bunch about the new found "zip" he's putting into the balls and am wondering if its affecting his timing...seen a number of balls behind and ahead of receivers and I haven't seen that inaccuracy in a while . Somethin to think about

 

[bigballas]

...that said, I did think he made a great deep pass to Dobson right after the defensive fumble recovery in the 4th. Unfortunately there was perfect defense to knock it away. Thoughts ?

 

[ausbacker]

Brady has spent his entire career being lauded for his ability to overcome these issues. You can't use these excuses and then call him the best ever out of the other side of your mouth.

What is your specific point? Brady's body of work allows him to be considered the best ever. This season, he has had a poor start to the season combined with other factors. How does holding that position have anything to do with your comment?

 

[Kdo5]

Nope. He hasn't been playing well for a while now actually.

I think your point is valid. This season he hasn't been very good, in most past recent seasons he's been excellent except not so much in the playoffs.

But the problem does begin w/the receivers. No QB can perform well when your targets can't catch the ball or are consistently running wrong routes. I suspect that's why some of his passes just wind up falling in areas w/no receiver close by.

As for Tom himself, he hasn't been particularly clutch for a while. Currently his accuracy is even a little suspect. He has his good throws but also bad ones...more than normal. When the receivers do run the right routes, I've seen passes thrown behind them, too high, too low, passes that can be should be caught by good NFL wideouts but certainly aren't easy. Yesterday he caused us to miss a TD to Amendola because he didn't lead him.

I think he'll be fine and hopefully things will change significantly but still there are issues w/the passing games and it's not all on the receivers.

 

[MassPats38]

So I assume you give Mark Sanchez a pass last year because all of his offensive weapons were bad? Oh no wait, he simply sucked. Brady made his bones in this league on being able to move the offense with sub-par talent. He's getting too much slack right now despite the offensive turnover. Brady looks awful. Simple as that.

Excellent comparison. "The Dirty," mediocre statistically, was mediocre with reduced weapons. His statistical average was 55% and he completed 54.1%. His average QBR was 71.1, and he finished 66.9. He was consistently mediocre. Is the point of your analogy that his being consistent with mediocrity translates to elite QBs with inferior targets? With 12 dropped passes changed to completions, Brady is at 62.7% His career average is 63.5%.

While I will openly agree that he has made mistakes himself, this notion that a QB, who cannot throw the ball to himself, somehow does his presto magic and rookies become veterans is patently ridiculous. Find a scenario in which a QB in history has faced this great an overall change in receivers from one season to the next, with a receiver corps populated by rookies rather than veterans, and still put up all world numbers, and then you have an informed opinion and reason to blast Brady. Otherwise, you are saying Brady waves a magic wand, and guys off the street become Megatron, capable of assuming the statistical load of Moss, Welker and Gronkowski. Maybe Brady can tweak their Madden stats on experience with a game cheat. This is not sub-par talent. It is rookies trying to adapt to NFL speed. Caldwell, Gabriel, Brown, and Gaffney were not rookies. They just were not number 1 receivers in the NFL. That is a huge difference. By your logic, a great QB can take 5 guys off the street and put up 4000 yard seasons because greatness will make them great. Not likely given the team nature of the sport.

The QB cannot give receivers experience, and most of the informed posters here appear to agree they will develop as the year goes on. Add some veterans to this mix, and maybe then Brady loses a pass.

 

[DocHoliday]

Excellent comparison. "The Dirty," mediocre statistically, was mediocre with reduced weapons. His statistical average was 55% and he completed 54.1%. His average QBR was 71.1, and he finished 66.9. He was consistently mediocre. Is the point of your analogy that his being consistent with mediocrity translates to elite QBs with inferior targets? With 12 dropped passes changed to completions, Brady is at 62.7% His career average is 63.5%.

While I will openly agree that he has made mistakes himself, this notion that a QB, who cannot throw the ball to himself, somehow does his presto magic and rookies become veterans is patently ridiculous. Find a scenario in which a QB in history has faced this great an overall change in receivers from one season to the next, with a receiver corps populated by rookies rather than veterans, and still put up all world numbers, and then you have an informed opinion and reason to blast Brady. Otherwise, you are saying Brady waves a magic wand, and guys off the street become Megatron, capable of assuming the statistical load of Moss, Welker and Gronkowski. Maybe Brady can tweak their Madden stats on experience with a game cheat. This is not sub-par talent. It is rookies trying to adapt to NFL speed. Caldwell, Gabriel, Brown, and Gaffney were not rookies. They just were not number 1 receivers in the NFL. That is a huge difference. By your logic, a great QB can take 5 guys off the street and put up 4000 yard seasons because greatness will make them great. Not likely given the team nature of the sport.

The QB cannot give receivers experience, and most of the informed posters here appear to agree they will develop as the year goes on. Add some veterans to this mix, and maybe then Brady loses a pass.

Exactly what I want to say. It's one thing to have subpar talent. It's another to play with rooks!

 

[jsull87]

I think it's pretty fair to say Brady didn't have a good game. I was speaking about this with a friend of mine. I also think it was a bit of a perfect storm of a terrible game from the O. Literally no unit played well. Drops, Missed open WR's, Missed blocks, Little to no run game, when we did break a run there was a fumble lost e.t.c

I see no reason why just because Brady is IMO the GOT QB that he should be immune from criticism. He had a bad game and this week will be just as tough

 

[Easywolf32]

Why does Tom Brady fold under DL Pressure?

I can't stand a QB who cannot function when pressured by a DL line.

It happened in the 2007 Superbowl, 2011 Superbowl, every time they've faced the Ravens in the regular season and playoffs the last 5 years, and it happened again with Cincinatti.

It's ok to lose a few matchups but to fold like a deck of cards all the time against these teams makes me sick to my stomach.

Tom, you need to get your **** together and be more decisive and have a quicker release when under pressure from these teams, your O line is amazing too. Please create a back up up plan with Bill for when facing the Giants, Ravens and now the Bengals. Or else: :bricks: