Patriots fear Brady’s internal clock is a blink faster
Tom Brady bailed. That’s what stuck. Lots of other things happened in the last week in an NFL that has a bunch of really good teams and also one that just signed Nathan Peterman. Yes, THAT Nathan Peterman. One day soon the Raiders are going to show up in Vegas in a big battered burned-out 1950s Cadillac that’s smoking and missing half the roof with Jon Gruden driving, a bunch of players jammed in the back seat, and a trunk full of stolen Oakland street signs.
But what stuck is that Tom Brady bailed. The Patriots were in Pittsburgh and it was a classic Big December Patriots Game. The top seed was still on the table, theoretically. Brady eviscerated the Steelers in a similar game last year, delivering a game-winning drive, throwing to a dominant Rob Gronkowski. He’s done it a million times before.
And when the play came, fourthand-15 from the 21, it wasn’t that the pass was incomplete. That happens. His receiving corps isn’t great, even if his offensive line has been. Nobody deliv- ers every time. Brady is just the guy who has come closest.
Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt rushed from Brady’s right, got into the backfield, but was wrestled to the ground. Defensive lineman Cameron Heyward stunted and was pushing through the middle. But there was no Steeler within three yards. Every quarterback has to rely on the clock in his head, and in his ability to sense the pressure, and in his ability to hang in and make the play. Brady had time. He could see everyone.
And he bailed, and it was so weird. He fell to his left as he threw, away from pressure that wasn’t there yet, and the ball rose a foot over Julian Edelman’s outstretched arm and was almost intercepted and the Patriots lost. Tom Brady fell to the ground untouched on the last biggest play of a big game. Huh.
Never count him out, yes, of course.
He’s 41, but he’s Tom Brady and he’s the best, and Bill Belichick is the best, and the Patriots are the Patriots until they’ve been buried in the ground for seven years and nothing has clawed its way back up.
But this is what sometimes happens when quarterbacks get old. Last week at Miami, on a play from the five-yard line at the end of the first half, Brady backpedalled too far and was off-balance and leaning away from pressure that wasn’t quite there yet, and the ball sailed over a wide-open Kevin Hogan. It seems to be happening with greater frequency.
He is the worst QB against the blitz this year, and again, Seth Wickersham of ESPN reported last year that Patriots coaches were worried about this exact issue. At the start of the season, Brady said, “I think most athletes, by the time you get to a certain point, you start to figure it out mentally, and physically it becomes really hard.” Hall of famer Warren Moon basically told Bleacher Report’s Ty Dunne last week that once your legs start to go, and your fast-twitch reactions go, it gets harder to trust your judgment in the pocket.
The Patriots will look good against the Bills and Jets in the next two weeks, but … Gronkowski looks more and more like a giant tin man, creaky and rusted. Josh Gordon, the lottery ticket wide receiver who gave the Patriots their only real outside threat, announced Thursday he is leaving football to focus on his mental health, as it was reported he was facing yet another drug suspension. Remember back in May, when Baker Mayfield’s agent said the Patriots were said to be interested in trading up to the No. 2 pick if Mayfield fell past the Cleveland Browns? (He didn’t.) Remember when Gronk contemplated retirement last year, and there was talk of trading him to Detroit?
The smoke signals were there. It’s isn’t always a cliff: sometimes it’s just crumbling. Empires end.
Last week this space went 8-8. As always, all lines could change.