Pump the Brakes on 'Brady Is Back,' Patriots Improvement a Team Effort
Since that infamous Week 4 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, the New England Patriots have won back-to-back games, with starting quarterback Tom Brady filling up the stat sheet.
In Week 5, the Cincinnati Bengals proved to be no-shows on Sunday Night Football, as the Patriots swept past the Bengals by a score of 43-17. The Bengals repeatedly gave the Patriots receivers too much room to work in, while Shane Vereen and Stevan Ridley combined for 203 easy rushing yards.
Brady completed 23 of 35 pass attempts in that game for 292 yards and two touchdowns—impressive but not spectacular numbers. The spectacular numbers came against the Buffalo Bills this weekend.
TOP NEWS
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Colts Release Kenny Moore
Projecting Every NFL Team's Starting Lineup 🔮
Rookie WRs Who Will Outplay Their Draft Value 📈
On 37 pass attempts, Brady completed 27 passes for 361 yards and four touchdowns with no turnovers. He also had another touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski called back and lost potential yards on a big defensive pass-interference penalty in the end zone.
Importantly, the Patriots offense found big plays in the passing game instead of relying on short throws to always carry the offense.
The offense still primarily relied on shorter throws, but Brian Tyms, Gronkowski and Brandon LaFell brought a vertical threat that had been lacking at times in previous games. Importantly, Brady was also able to find his receivers down the field with a little more consistency.
Although he was still missing deep passes down the field, the difference between being accurate on a couple of passes against missing all of them can have a huge effect on an offense's production.
Improved Deep Accuracy
When Tyms, the 25-year-old wide receiver who was suspended to start this season, was excelling in the preseason he was doing so by catching deep passes down the field. Those deep passes weren't coming from Brady, though, they were coming from backup Jimmy Garoppolo.
Tyms adds a dimension on the outside that the Patriots haven't had in recent times. He is 6'3" and can get in behind defenses with his straight-line speed. That is what he did for his touchdown reception at the start of the third quarter.
As they have done on a regular basis lately to neutralize the effect of their often overwhelmed offensive line, the Patriots ran play action that only sent two receivers out in routes. That allowed them to keep three extra blockers in, one being the running back carrying out the play fake.
Tyms is lined up to the top of the screen. He is working against talented cornerback Stephon Gilmore, the Bills' most talented defensive back, who is taking an outside position early in his route. Gilmore has safety help deep, so he is shepherding Tyms as he runs down the seam.
Brady is carrying out the fake at this point of the play, but because he only has two initial receivers running routes, his read is very simple once he does turn around.
The Bills appeared to be running a Cover 3 defense that puts three defensive backs covering a deep third of the field. The Patriots had the perfect route combination to attack that coverage, as Julian Edelman ran a deep crosser roughly 20 yards downfield with Tyms continuing down the seam before drifting toward the middle of the field.
When Brady recognizes that the deep middle safety has stepped forward, he knows immediately that he is going to throw the ball to Tyms.
Even though the deep safety moved forward, Gilmore has great coverage on Tyms as he is big enough and fast enough to be aggressive with him that far down the field. While Gilmore is in good coverage and he gets very close to knocking the ball away, he isn't able to prevent Tyms from making the catch.
Brady's pass was perfectly placed and perfectly timed. He threw the ball with anticipation and put it in the only spot where Tyms could get it.
Tyms' size undoubtedly helped in this situation, but the receiver didn't have to make a spectacular catch and he clearly wasn't wide-open when Brady released the ball. Furthermore, when throwing down the field, it is much more difficult to complete this kind of pass because it is going to a parallel route.
If the receiver was running a deep out or if Brady decided to throw to Edelman on the crossing route, it would be much easier to understand the depth and put the ball in a spot where the receiver could break on it.
Brady still missed a number of throws down the field in this game. He had one more big throw down the field that was completed to LaFell, but the Bills appeared to blow an assignment that meant the receiver was wide-open.
If he can consistently connect on two to four deep passes in each game, the Patriots offense as a whole should be dramatically better. It not only gets those yards, but those plays also free up space underneath because the defense can't be as aggressive against their shorter routes.
Rob Gronkowski
Over the past two weeks, Gronkowski has 13 receptions for 194 yards and a touchdown.
He didn't have a touchdown against the Bills, but he essentially did everything else with a very impressive touchdown reception that was negated by penalty. Even though he had more receptions and yards against the Chiefs than he did against the Bills, this was the first game this year where it appeared that Gronkowski was the focal point of the game plan.
The Patriots moved Gronkowski around the formation throughout the game and asked him to run a variety of routes. His sheer size has always made him a viable option when covered, but it was his athleticism that really stood out in this game.
The 25-year-old tight end was back to running away from defensive backs and linebackers with ease while also racking up some important yards after the carry.
Gronkowski has a tendency to make the big play. That doesn't mean the longest play from the line of scrimmage but rather a timely play that keeps the team in good position. This is something he did late in the third quarter when the Patriots were playing with a six-point lead.
Before the snap, Brady motioned Gronkowski from his tight end position tight to the formation so that he was outside of the numbers in a receiver stance. Safety Duke Williams, a player the Patriots picked on all day, moved outside with Gronkowski suggesting that it was man coverage.
Brady immediately looked to this matchup.
As Brady dropped back in the pocket, Gronkowski ran his stem at the defensive back. He ran toward the defensive backs inside shoulder, before threatening to run an in route at the perfect time. That gave Gronkowski an opportunity to run past the defensive back down the sideline.
The ball ultimately arrives on top of Gronkowski, as Brady lofts the ball over the defensive back for a big play. Brady's swiftness to recognize this matchup, and maybe to create it if it was his decision to motion Gronkowski out wide rather than it just being a part of the play call, deserves a lot of credit.
However, his throw could have been better.
Even though the ball lands on Gronkowski, that comes after Gronkowski recognized the flight of the ball early in its trajectory to slow down for it. Gronkowski had comfortably beaten the defensive back, and a pass that led him downfield would have afforded him the opportunity to continue running down the field with greater ease.
The tight end's athleticism and catch radius are huge parts of what make him a special player. It's impossible to replace special players unless you are extremely fortunate, so it should go without saying that having Gronkowski in the lineup is a huge help to Brady and a huge hinderance when he is out.
Route Concepts
One of the less talked about aspects of the Patriots offense and Brady's supporting cast is the coaching staff. The Patriots coaching staff typically infuriates its fans when it comes to the receiver position, but that is typically more about evaluation rather than usage.
The usage of the Patriots' receivers can be incredible at times, as Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels designed their offense using route concepts that work together to take advantage of space. Often these route concepts create easy throws with high yards-after-catch (YAC) potential.
A great example of this came in the fourth quarter when LaFell caught a touchdown pass on a slant route.
What happened before the snap on this play was just as important to the result as what happened after it. When the Patriots came out with stacked receivers to the left side, the Bills defense appeared to be confused as to how it was going to react.
At that point, the Patriots motioned Edelman across the formation to the other side of the field. This created a lot of movement and communication between five defenders over the middle of the field and to the outside.
The Bills eventually settled to make it appear as if they were all on the same page, but when the ball was snapped, that wasn't the case.
At the snap, Brady looks immediately to Gronkowski who is running down the middle of the field. The veteran quarterback eventually recognizes that Gronkowski is being covered down the seam in man coverage by the linebacker underneath with safety help coming over the top.
By the time he realizes that, LaFell has moved closer to where he is looking on his slant route. LaFell should have been covered by the defender immediately across from him, but his eyes were drawn to Vereen coming out of the backfield behind LaFell.
Brady throws a slightly low pass to LaFell that forces him to adjust, but because he is wide-open over the middle of the field, LaFell has time to catch the ball and compose himself before running into the end zone.
As the above image shows, the defender over the middle of the field is the closest player to react to LaFell, but he is running away from the play and not looking at the ball because of the route Gronkowski ran. This comes about because of the motion before the snap and the design of the play.
It wasn't a tough throw for Brady, but his speed making the quick decision and the Bills' blown assignment combined to give the offense an easy touchdown reception.
Offensive Line
It's hard to give the Patriots' offensive line a huge amount of credit for its play over the past two weeks. It demolished the Bengals running the ball, but the Bengals have been one of the worst run defenses in the NFL to this point, and their defensive line has played a major role in that.
Against the Bills, the offensive line was protected largely by Brady getting rid of the ball quickly and the overall approach from the Patriots offense. The Bills were able to be very disruptive during the first half, with Jerry Hughes and Mario Williams both getting sacks to highlight their constant pressure.
In the second half, the Patriots' offensive line didn't dominate a very talented Bills defense, but it proved to be competent at the very least. Brady deserves a lot of credit for helping to neutralize this aspect of the game with his play from the pocket.
Verdict
When Brady and the Patriots offense were struggling, there was much haste to point out the flaws of his supporting cast. Now that Brady's production is back where it is expected to be, we shouldn't simply ignore the contributions of that supporting cast.
Brady isn't the kind of quarterback who can elevate players around him like he did during his prime. Now that he is much older and suffering a physical decline, he needs more support from his receivers, coaches and offensive linemen.
Over the past two weeks, Brady has shown off his intelligence and poise to take advantage of his receivers finding space with relative ease. As much as Brady has declined physically, he hasn't declined to the point that he is a bad quarterback.
The last two weeks have certainly proved that.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
