Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul thinks he and the rest of the Giants’ pass rush got inside Tom Brady’s head when the teams played during the regular season.
In his media availability today, Pierre-Paul said he thinks the Giants’ pressure will have a significant impact on Brady, and Pierre-Paul bases that on the fact that during the previous Giants-Patriots meeting, Brady was hurrying his throws because he was worried about the Giants getting to him.
“I think it will have much impact on his performance because if you look at Week 9, when we played them, it’s like he felt us,” Pierre-Paul said. “When we looked back on the film, we watched the film, and we didn’t really rush like we can rush as a defense. He was throwing balls on the ground and stuff.”
Pierre-Paul said that when they played before, Brady was reacting to pressure that wasn’t really there. So just think, Pierre-Paul said, about how much they can rattle Brady if the pressure really is there.
“He did react to pressure that didn’t exist, and he was just throwing the ball places where there wasn’t even a receiver there,” Pierre-Paul said. “Imagine us getting there even faster and actually doing our jobs and getting hits on him.”
In the Patriots’ 24-20 loss to the Giants in the regular season, Brady threw a season-high 49 passes, completing 28 of them for 342 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions. The Giants sacked him twice and forced him to fumble once. Pierre-Paul sees another game ahead where Brady will be throwing often, and the Giants will have to force him to make mistakes.
“It’s going to be a battle,” Pierre-Paul said. “We have to get there. We have to.”