An Independent Patriots Blog
In keeping with the personality of the team I love I’m trying to turn the page to the Bears now. I can’t promise there won’t be some more Jets celebration posts, but for now let’s just start off with a fan video of Brady juking Brian Urlacher back in 2006.
Here’s the pic of Brady celebrating afterwards, one of the most memorable celebrations of Brady’s career…
Stumbled across this on PatsFans.com today, it’s Brady’s draft profile from Pro Football Weekly. Kind of inspiring…
In the 6th round of the 2000 NFL Draft (199th overall) from Michigan the Patriots select Tom Brady.
Notes: Baseball catcher and football quarterback in high school who was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 18th round of the June 1995 baseball draft. Opted for football and redshirted at Michigan in ‘95. Saw limited action in ’96 and ’97 and started the past two years. Completed 3 of 5 passes for 26 yards, no touchdowns and one interception in ’96, 12-15-103-0-0 in ’97, 214-350-2,636-15-12 in ’98 and 180-295-2,216-16-6 in ’99, when he often shared time with super sophomore Drew Henson. Went all the way against Alabama in the Orange Bowl and completed 34-46-369-4. Unlike many Michigan quarterbacks, Brady is a pocket-type passer who plays best in a dropback-type system.
Positives: Good height to see the field. Very poised and composed. Smart and alert. Can read coverages. Good accuracy and touch. Produces in big spots and in big games. Has some Brian Griese in him and is a gamer. Generally plays within himself. Team leader.
Negatives: Poor build. Very skinny and narrow. Ended the ’99 season weighing 195 pounds and still looks like a rail at 211. Looks a little frail and lacks great physical stature and strength. Can get pushed down more easily than you’d like. Lacks mobility and ability to avoid the rush. Lacks a really strong arm. Can’t drive the ball down the field and does not throw a really tight spiral. System-type player who can get exposed if he must ad-lib and do things on his own.
Summary: Is not what you’re looking for in terms of physical stature, strength, arm strength and mobility, but he has the intangibles and production and showed great Griese-like improvement as a senior. Could make it in the right system but will not be for everyone.
TFB was the number one ranked QB last week for his performance versus the Lions. Here’s FO’s breakdown:
For what it’s worth – and it’s not all that much – Brady finished the game with a perfect passer rating of 158.3, the second time in his career he’s had a “perfect game” by the NFL’s system. (The other game was predictably in 2007, when he went 21-of-25 against the Dolphins for 354 yards and six touchdowns.) DYAR agrees that it was the best game of the week, but recognizes that Brady wasn’t all that effective for a fair amount of the game. During the Patriots’ first five drives, Brady dropped back 19 times and picked up just 131 yards and seven first downs. Those drives only produced 10 points. On the Patriots’ final five meaningful drives, Brady had ten dropbacks, all of which were completed passes. He did a little more with them: 219 yards, three first downs, and four touchdowns. The Patriots scored five touchdowns on those five drives. While quarterback rating sees a first-half stretch by Brady with five completions in a row for a total of 24 yards (none of which gained a first down or came close) as positive, DYAR rightly sees them as negative, because they weren’t helping the Patriots produce points.
It was troubling to see that the Patriots offense went cold in the clutch again versus the Colts. All they needed was one more drive to ice the game, something they were able to do against the Vikings, but this time they failed on two possessions, only gaining one first down. This of course put the game in the hands of the defense.
Here’s what Football Outsiders saw when they broke down Brady’s final three pass attempts during those failed drives…
Brady had exactly three incompletions on his first 24 attempts before finishing his game out with four consecutive incompletions, including a would-be interception that Tyjuan Hagler was nice enough to show to the turf. Aaron Schatz and Bill Simmons wondered about what happened to Brady on those final attempts during the former’s appearance on the B.S. Report, so I decided to take a look at the final three.
On the first play, the Colts lined up with linebackers in both A-gaps, leaving six guys in the box against an empty backfield for the Patriots. The Colts lined up with man coverage across the field and no safeties deep. The blitzers came, which forced Logan Mankins to take one of the blitzing linebackers and Matt Light to grab the right defensive tackle. That left Dwight Freeney with a free rush at Brady, which forced an early throw to Brady’s hot read, Wes Welker, who hadn’t turned around yet.
Two plays later, Brady lined up with one linebacker in the A-gap and Danny Woodhead in the backfield. The Colts brought five and Brady wasn’t significantly pressured; he got off a clean throw, but it was thrown slightly behind Deion Branch, which allowed Cornelius Brown to knock the ball away. Branch suggested that there was pass interference committed on the play, but there was no such call.
Brady’s final throw came with 2:38 left; on third-and-7, the Colts lined up with three down linemen and two linebackers in a “mug” look, while the Patriots went with a Trips Bunch left alignment that had Wes Welker, Julian Edelman, and Aaron Hernandez in a group and Woodhead in the backfield. The Colts only brought four and Brady had a perfect pocket; he just missed his window to Welker. The throw itself seemed like something was off; even if Hagler hadn’t been there, it would have been well behind both Welker and the defender that was trailing him.
There were a lot of eerie similarities between this year’s Patriots Colts match up and previous games of the rivalry. Of course lately we know a lot about blown leads. And this one came very close to being a blown lead.
But finally we also saw something ala 2003, a big defensive play to preserve the win at the last moment. Then it was Willie MacGinest’s goal line stop. This time it was James Sanders, a guy who deserves a big play as much as anyone.
Never celebrated, it was Sanders who was credited with galvanizing the 2009 defensive backfield. He’s a quiet leader. Knows his assignments and does his best to get them done. It was good to see Sanders finally come through with a clutch play, his career lacked a notable big one until he made that interception.
Though the defense gave up a whopping 78% of their third downs, they did pick off Peyton Manning three times. That’s three times more than the Colts defense picked off Tom Brady.
So yes, they looked like swiss cheese but they had less holes than the Colts and made more plays. More big plays. That is a big positive going into the final six games.
But it is still a very big question mark if this Patriots defense can shut down three good quarterbacks en route to a Super Bowl.
The good news is that the Patriots are very much vying with the Jets for the first seed in the AFC. This is a race the Pats must win because whoever finishes in second place in the division will be looking at a five seed, even though they’ll probably have the second best record in the conference.
That’s what makes it interesting when you have two teams in one division both atop the conference. I have no clue how the Jets have won the last three games. Three miracles. They’ll be confident when they come to Foxboro, they’re 5-0 on the road.
The Patriots offense is amorphous and as balanced and potent as we’ve seen. The Randy Moss offense was dynamic, but this offense is so versatile they can play with power or finesse with the same personnel grouping.
However, Brady and company did sputter at the one time you can’t sputter…the fourth quarter. All they really needed was one more decent drive to bleed the clock out and they had two chances to get it. Went three and out on both of them. Consistency is something that will be stressed this week.
Unfortunately there really isn’t much time to savor this one. Thanksgiving kickoff against the Detroit Lions is 85 hours away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNH
It hurts to watch this. I know. But let it sink in real good. The tide turns tomorrow.
Note – best part of this video is BB giving Dungy a heartfelt congratulations, then blowing right past Peyton Manning. It’s right at the end if you can make it that far.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/it-hurts-to-watch-this-i-know-but-let-it-sink-in/
Tom Brady Hasn’t had the mop cut this short in a while… (via Patriots open 2012 Training Camp)
