While most of the rest of us couldn’t take our eyes off Andrew Luck’s amazing comeback against the Chiefs Saturday, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady didn’t really notice.
Brady said his focus was on the other side of the ball, refusing to get drawn into a battle-of-the-generations quarterback storyline.
“Truthfully, I’m not worried about the opposing quarterback,” Brady told Boston sports radio station WEEI, via Field Yates of ESPNBoston.com. “I’m thinking about the defense and what I need to do to play against them.
“I didn’t watch one snap of Indy’s offense, nor will I this week. I’ll be focused on the defense and what we need to do score points, because that’s what my job is.”
While that priority is reasonable, the challenge of staying upright will be paramount for Brady, with Robert Mathis on the other side. Mathis had 19.5 sacks in the regular season, and has sacked Brady five times in seven games.
“And like I said, it all starts with Robert Mathis and being the defensive player of the year, basically, 19.5 sacks, he kind of wreaks a lot of havoc,” Brady said. “We’ve got to be able to figure out how to slow him down and then we’ve got to be really balanced on offense like we’ve been. We’ve got to run it, and when we throw, we’ve got to throw it good.”
Especially if they have the lead in the fourth quarter, since the guy Brady didn’t watch throws it good then too.