ReutersWhen Tom Brady was nit-picking his own body language last week, Patriots coach Bill Belichick shrugged it off and said his quarterback was one of the best leaders he had ever been around.
Brady took it another step Monday morning, placing some of the blame for a faltering offense at his own feet as well.
“I’m not making all the right plays, either,” Brady said during his weekly appearance on WEEI, via the Boston Herald. “It’s not like the rookie receivers are messing up all the time — no, not at all. Look, I’ve been really able to count on those guys. They’ve done an incredible job. I think we’ve got to improve in all aspects of our offense, and that will hopefully remove some of the burden that is fallen on the receivers right now. We have a lot of veteran players that aren’t playing right now, too, that if they were playing, the burden would be spread around to different guys who have actually been able to, would shoulder a lot of that responsibility that’s now fallen on the younger players.
“And the younger players are doing a great job. They’re working really hard. Their attitude is great. It’s been fun to work with them. Hopefully it all pays off in November and December when if we can ever get to a point where we have a lot of our guys back and healthy and playing really well.”
At the moment, the rookie receivers are standing out, for the wrong reasons. Brady has completed 9-of-31 passes for 145 yards and one touchdown when he throws to first-year wideouts Kenbrell Thompkins, Aaron Dobson and Josh Boyce.
That he’s completing 65 percent of his passes to others, but 29 percent to the rookies he has to depend on, says plenty.
But the fact Tom Brady is willing to acknowledge his own role in it might say more.
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He’s blowing smoke to keep his receivers from losing too much confidence before they find their stride. Only thing worse than feeling like you let the team down, is having the media pile on and having your QB’s wife throw you under the bus to the paparazzi…
Zero Superbowls since Spygate. #Cheater
Granted, the love fest and hug from Belichick to Brady, but Brady was right to place at least some of the responsibility at his own feet. He needs to get to know the rookies better, what their natural tendencies are, and by doing so, he can place the ball where they are most likely to catch it. The 29% is telling, but he can change that in the next games.
Brady is going to fine tune that aspect of the offense and we will see some changes coming up.
Brady is facing an uphill battle playing with young receivers. But he has to make better deep throws. I noticed the past year or 2 he is just overthrowing his guys on passes 20+ yards down the field. Gotta fix it.
Brady is a good leader and always willing to admit his own mistakes. He is a true team player. He’s also highly competitive and it shows in his emotions on the field.
Oh, and Logicalvoice -it’s been 2 Superbowls since the so-called “spygate”. They didn’t win, but they made it there. Where has your team been? And it’s not looking good so far for you this year.
“Brady is facing an uphill battle playing with young receivers. But he has to make better deep throws. I noticed the past year or 2 he is just overthrowing his guys on passes 20+ yards down the field. Gotta fix it.”——————————————————————————————-
Yeah, other than a 2007 version of Moss, he hasn’t had speedsters. He has overthrown a lot the last 2 years. Too much dink n dunk has thrown deep ball timing off. The good news is he can still throw the deep ball.
Brady’s age is really starting to show, he needs MORE help, not less.
Tom is starting to sound like he’s running for political office. If anyone gets on him (media) he quickly comes back with the politicly correct thing to say. I for one like when he tells it like it is the 1st time without the corrections. The guy has been the best qb in the league for a long time now and for ownership, Belecheck, or whoever to give him or let go (Welker,Lynce) is good reason for him to be pissed at these recievers that can’t catch.
Brady your done
Let’s be honest: how many of those passes that were “overthrown” hit their intended receivers in the hands? I’d say at least 50%, including that beautiful deep ball to Dobson that dropped right in over the coverage…Brady does make his bad throws and as the leader as the offense should shoulder more blame for when things go wrong, but he’s been great over the first two games; the receivers really need to step it up
This is one of my favorite things about TB, he’s willing to take blame for his part in things. Not all QBs will do that.
And for those who don’t recall or know, he was mad at his wife for her idiotic comments about the receivers after the SB.
Factors involved in the low completion percentage are numerous including dropped passes, the loss of every experienced receiver from the previous year, and the rookies lack of experience with the system. The CBA has restricted the amount of practice time and on field reps players received in the past through the training camp. The team played a short week game in which they did not conduct a single practice session. This situation will be a challenge for the Pats to work on in order to improve but my faith in Tom Brady to lead the team is not in question.
His silly comments aside, I’m just happy that logicalvoicesays is here commenting and not on suicide watch. If the skins can’t get by the Lions next week it may be the end for his messiah RG0-3.
Are you on drugs? Every team was videotaping since it was legal to do so. Roger Goodell sent that memo about videotaping to every team in the NFL. If the Pats were the only team videotaping, then why did Goodell send that memo to every team in the NFL?
Because every team was videotaping. Every team cheats. And the Pats have been to the AFC Championship or Superbowl every year since 2007 so you really need to brush up on your facts.
Listen carefully critics. That is the voice of a leader. Of course he was frustrated in the game. He is also a type “A” alpha competitor. But he has watched film and reflected on what’s going on. And he realizes that his own play is way off too. He missed Edelman several times too. And several times the tight ends were wide open & he didn’t trust or target them. He also threw behind or over those young receivers on occasion. So that us what he was referring too.
But I trust and believe 100% that Tom Brady and those young talented guys will get on the same page sooner than later (Dobson, Thompkins, Boyce, Edelman, Sudfeld, Hoosmanului?).
Here is what I saw in all honesty. Those young guys are running much faster routes than Tom is used to seeing. And they are open. But he is throwing it a step too slow & low. Because he is used to targeting the Tight ends and guys like Welker. He needs to mentally go back to his Randy Moss reads. Then look out! When he has done that, those kids have made big plays. He and they just have to trust each other and “Just Do It”! And they will IMO. Probably this week.
If they win this Sunday, I predict the Patriots will be 4-1 at the 5 game mark. Their offense will be gearing up, BIG TIME. And none of us will be talking about this. I know I sound like a rabid “Homer”. But I feel on very safe ground counting on Tom Brady to make it all work out.
He’s saying this to save face. Duh! And he was off a bit on Thursday too. He missed some plays himself.
logicalvoicesays says:
Zero Superbowls since Spygate. #Cheater
___________________
Shanahan zero Super Bowls since his salary cap cheating with the Broncos. Then goes to the Redskins and immediately salary cap cheats there.
Meintodd – the Jets were in the AFC Championship game in 2009 against the Colts and 2011 against the Steelers. You had a valid point but don’t call someone out on not having their facts straight and be blatantly wrong on yours.
Uhhhhhh yaaaaaa DUUUUUUHHHHHHHH
Tom Brady Season Stats
Comp% 52.7, Yds 473, TD 3, INT 1, Rating 74.1
15 for 38 on 3rd down an abysmal 39%
This was against 2 weak opponents starting rookie QB’s.
I would say you having to do a little better is an under statement Tom!!! Those types of numbers are the kind of numbers that got Tebow thrown out of the league.
Let’s show you what elite QB’s in the league have been doing this year
Payton Manning Season Stats
Comp%67.1, YDS 769, TD 9, INT 0, Rating 131.0
Aaron Rogers Season Stats
Comp%69.6, Yds 813, TD 7, Int 1, Rating 127.2
Matt Ryan
Comp%71.6, Yds 678, TD 4, Int 1, Rating 107.9
This is what elite Qb’s do against great opponents.
Tom Brady = Most over rated game manager of all time.
But let’s not look at the numbers right Tom? Let’s just blame it on my rookie receivers. Great leadership Tom, great leadership.
Queue the delusional pats fans trying to stick up for this joke of a franchise that hasn’t done anything since SPYGATE.
Tom Brady is probably the best example of a QB that needs to improve key areas that everybody seems to be in denial about. I applaud him for finally acknowledging his shortcomings and wanting to do something about it. A little late but good for him if he can improve. He just needs to spend less time with Belichick who hasn’t been helping him all these years by anchoring him down. Do your own thing with your own QB experts and stop letting Belichick get into your head, he’s not going to be able to help you.
I love how before the season even started when Hernandez was convicted for murder and Gronk was out with back surgery, every pats fan on here wasn’t even worried…lol…when knowledgeable football fans saw this coming. All pats fans were saying ” Tom didn’t need good receivers back in 02, o3, 05″. “Tom makes all his the receivers look good”. It’s funny how the tune changes when TB puts up back to back stinkers…..lol……So TB all of a sudden needs talent around him now? when in fact he is the one throwing balls in the dirt, overthrowing receivers, in 3 rd and long all the time because they can’t run it. He looks terrified in the pocket and is scared to take a hit. What a joke!
metintodd says:
Because every team was videotaping. Every team cheats. And the Pats have been to the AFC Championship or Superbowl every year since 2007 so you really need to brush up on your facts.
LMAO Really?
07 Missed playoffs
08 Biggest choke in NFL history
09 Lost to ravens in Wildcard
10 Lost in Div round to Jets
11 Luckily got to the SB due to a lucky drop and missed FG by Ravens then choked another Superbowl to Eli…Brady played horrible I might add.
12 Lost to Raven’s in AFC Championship….badly I might add….Brady played horrible again.
I love that everybody videotapes excuse…lol….I guess the league just decided to take it out on you guys right? MORON!!! The league took draft picks away and charged your Coach $500 000 because the entire league was so jealous of your team success I guess right? To top it off they called it SPYGATE because it was no big deal. SMH…your the typical moronic, dumb, ignorant Pats fan that has no clue about football, let alone his own football team.
Forsbergler – you are one angry dude! Did the Pat’s hurt your little feelings once upon a time?
The problems that the young receivers are having, and they are not alone, is that they are not executing the fundamentals of proper technique when catching the ball. They are either basket catching, and the ball is bouncing off hands, arms, chest, pads, etc, or their hands are not positioned correctly for the catch, which is what I see the most.
The issue with the hands is this: The wrist is not meant to turn radially to the outside. It turns 180 degrees towards the INSIDE (towards your body). Put your hands out in front of you, palms up. Now turn your wrists in the direction of your thumbs. Didn’t get very far huh? Now imagine a player running down the right sideline….the QB throws him the ball….it’s coming in on the receivers left side…..and the receiver lifts his hands and extends them out in front of himself (to the right of his head) as he runs, and makes a bed for the ball to land in…but it comes in too hot and bounces off his hands as he tries to cradle it. His hands are essentially lined up pinky to pinky. Now try placing your hands like that and you will see there is zero ability for the wrist to turn back towards the ball at more than a 35 degree angle. It’s bad form.
What should be happening is the hand attached to the shoulder closest to the incoming ball should be placed ABOVE the other hand….this way the hands can form a cone….thumb to thumb and index finger to index finger….with pinky’s facing the incoming ball.
NOW….you form a natural resting place for the ball to land in where you can not only stop the ball but you can snatch the ball out of the air using your flexible FINGERS (with those high tech gloves on them), which form multiple points of contact AROUND the ball.
When deciding how to position your hands you have to be conscious of where you are on the field in relation to the QB, and where the ball is coming in to (hi/lo, left/right, etc). You have to adjust positioning accordingly, and sometimes the ball just comes in to the center of your body and you have to make a different kind of cone, and adjust for a high or low throw, but I think you can understand the point here.
If you watch the tape of the Buffalo and NYJ games you will see countless examples of this being done by Pats receivers. They all did it in Buffalo. Edlelman tightened it up against the Jets but did it a few times too. It’s fundamentals. My guess is there is SO much effort being placed on the route running of the young receivers that not enough emphasis is being placed on this (catching) . I think it’s a coaching issue, though I would think that by the time you reach the NFL this should be old hat, but I guess not.
Any time you see an NFL receiver miss what should have been an easy catch it is almost always due to this positioning issue of the hands and the limitations on the rotation of the wrist that is closest to the incoming ball.
An additional benefit to catching the ball like stated above is that it places the ball in a position where in one motion you can naturally tuck the ball down under your arm immediately, in stride, and continue running rather than re-position it and THEN tuck it away, risking a fumble. I can’t say enough about this pass catching technique.
Also Brady is 71-14 since 07 or the advent of that excuse, with a division title in every year he’s played, 2 sb appearances and leads with less than 2 min in sb 42 and less than a minute in sb 46…they won every sb by 3 and lost by 3 and 4, so it came down to a single play or two before and after the story broke, so not seeing much of a difference. Asante Samuel dropping the bs winning pick and a miracle catch by tyree and manningham, doesn’t really have much to do with a camera. If it was such an advantage, why did they miss the playoffs in 02, get smoked by Denver in 05, and blow a 18pt halftime lead against the colts in the 06 afc champ?