The Blame Rests on Tom Brady, Not Welker: Brady's Miscues Sink Patriots

To quote Yogi Berra, "It was deja vu all over again!"   The Giants were facing the Patriots in the Super Bowl.  And the Giants' Eli Manning once again made big plays in the fourth quarter to pull out the victory.

But what of Tom Brady?  This was supposed to be a crowning moment for Brady.  This was supposed to be the moment he finally stepped out of the shadow of "spygate" and won a championship that nobody could suggest was tainted by cheating.

Some fans had begun praising Brady as if he'd already won the championship, debating over whether he could be considered the greatest quarterback ever.  But such praise was very, very premature.  And as Brady's "Hail Mary" pass fell incomplete to finish the game, the deafening silence coming out of the New England area said volumes.

I've already read numerous blogs, comments and articles from upset Patriot fans looking for reasons to explain this loss.  But the real reason is probably more painful than most Patriot fans dare acknowledge.  Their hero, Tom Brady, once again wasn't equal to the task and his miscues really cost his team.

It started ominously with Brady attempting to throw away the ball when he sensed an imminent sack in his own end zone.  The refs weren't fooled however and awarded the Giants a safety on intentional grounding.  It's interesting that Brady had the time to throw the ball away deep but lacked the presence of mind to at least get the ball in the proximity of one of his receivers.

Later, the Patriots were driving and Brady tried to throw deep to one of his favorite targets, tight end Rob Gronkowski.  Gronkowski had obviously beaten the coverage, and if the pass had been thrown deep enough he would certainly have scored.  But Brady didn't get enough on the throw.  The underthrown ball allowed Giants linebacker Chase Blackburn to get back into the play and make the interception.

Perhaps the most costly error came in the fourth quarter.  Wes Welker was wide open, sprinting down the left numbers, but Brady's throw was behind Welker.  Welker tried to adjust in the air and make the catch but couldn't hang on.  But the glaring fact was that Welker shouldn't have had to try and make a difficult catch, he was wide open but Brady failed to make a good throw.  There's really no excuse for a quarterback with Brady's experience to make a bad throw in such a relatively easy situation.

As the game neared it's end Brady made one more, albeit less important poor throw to receiver Deion Branch on a deep out route.  The ball was caught, but out of bounds, as Brady's pass was thrown beyond the sideline.  Had the pass been thrown such that the catch could have been made in bounds, it likely wouldn't have made much difference to the outcome.  However, it would have made the final "Hail Mary" a much shorter throw. 

Much of Tom Brady's struggles can be attributed to pass-rush pressure.  Throughout his career Brady has been prone to get "happy feet" when the pass rush is getting to him.  And with his lack of mobility, this has become his Achilles heel. 

The pressure the Giants got on Brady in Super Bowl XLII held him and the potent Patriots offense to just 14 points.  Tonight, even though the Giants didn't have the big sack totals they had four years ago, the Patriots scoring wasn't much better.  Brady and company could only muster 17 points this time around.

All this could lead one to believe Tom Brady is overrated, requiring tremendous offensive line protection and all day to throw or he struggles.

But, no matter what a person's opinion is of Brady, the fact remains that in Super Bowl XLVI, just as in Super Bowl XLII, it was Eli Manning, not Tom Brady, who was able to make the plays that led his team to victory.  This will undoubtedly be very hard to swallow for Patriots fans, but as the old saying goes, "sometimes the truth hurts."