Just after 3PM, Tom Brady fell to the ground grabbing his knee and rocking back and forth behind a crowd of his own teammates.
As more and more news came out it was made clear that Brady had been hit in the knee by the stumbling body of Nate Solder. The video that revealed that contrary to a well documented order by both teams coaches, Tampa linemen: Adrian Clayborne 'bull rushed' New England's Nate Solder, pushing him backwards and instantly casting a veil of unsure terror across the Brady obsessed collection of states that is New England.
"Coach Belichick and I stressed to our teams: Let them throw the football,” Tampa coach: Greg Schiano said. “Rush the passer, but go by them and don't get around them. I can't tell you [more] because I didn't see what happened."
"You always have to stay away from the quarterback but if you have a guy on his heels, my instinct is to keep going," Clayborne said but in truth, Tom Brady HAD been hurt.
Yet nevertheless, we were finally released from our purgatory just a few hours after we fell into it when it was reported that mighty Brady had had an MRI on his leg come back negative and that in all likelihood, Brady might even play in Friday's preseason match-up with Tampa Bay.
But in the end, last night's near apocalypse will leave an indelible mark that cannot be erased by anything. Tim Tebow and Ryan Mallet are not the guys who are going to be THE guy when Brady is either injured or retired.
When you look at the mold two huge names in the world of backups seem to reign supreme. Well for one there was Brady in 2001 but in the 14 years since his NFL debut, quite a bit has changed. In fact when you look at what it takes to be a great backup you look at two guys who dominated just 1 year ago: Kurk Cousins and Colin Kaepernick.
With a combined age of just 50 years old, both Cousins and Kaepernick came on in the scenario that we believed had befallen the Patriots. That being, QB goes down and the backup nobody had ever heard of comes on. We start with Kaepernick.
After he was drafted midway through the second round of the 2011 draft. In his first season in the league, he didn't do much, playing 3 games and averaging just 1 completion a piece. But in the blink of an eye, all that changed as midway through a week six clash with St Louis, San Fransico QB: Alex Smith went down with a concussion. So...on came Kaepernick and promptly snatched the starting job away from Smith.
New England would see Kaepernick first hand just 5 weeks later and were ripped apart in the 1st half while Kaepernick notched 221 yards on a rainy night in Foxborough.
"I told everybody from the beginning, Colin is the truth," linebacker Aldon Smith said after perhaps the best game of Kaepernick's career. "Everybody wants to be surprised. The kid is good. We keep expecting good things from him. We want to get past where we were last year and get to New Orleans."
Kaepernick would in fact lead his team to New Orleans (despite losing on the last play of the Super Bowl) and by the end of the season it was clear, Kaepernick has surpassed all expectations and was the new San Francisco starting QB. Kaepernick
What Colin did in 2012 surprised us but in a way, it didn't at all. In a situation like the one in San Francisco or a theoretical one where Brady hurts his knee, what the backup needs to do is come in and depending on the severity of the injury play for either 1 or 2 games or sustain a team for a long term. What Kaepernick did was the latter of those 2 options.
Now looking further into what would have happened if Brady had say torn his ACL or at least strained it yesterday. In all likelihood, he would have missed at least 10 games meaning that you need to find a replacement for those 10 games. Now as it stands, Ryan Mallet is THE backup not Tim Tebow so he would play...but that does not necessarily mean he is the right choice.
As terrible as many might say, the best possible choice for a backup for Brady would probably be Tebow, mainly because of history. Just 4 weeks into 2011, amidst a world of anger on the part of Broncos fans, Denver starter: Kyle Orton was benched to make way for former Heisman winning Quarterback: Tim Tebow. Within just a few weeks, Denver and the world was soon overrun with an unthinkable phenomenon called 'Tebowmainia'.
From then on, the Broncos were THE team winning 7 of 8 and and marching out of the doldrums of a terrible start to finished the year a playoff qualifying 8 and 8. For so many weeks, he was the quarterback behind the cardiac kids of the NFL beating the Steelers in stunning comeback fashion in Wild Card week in the playoffs all before being dismantled in divisional playoffs by the Patriots.
What Tebow did in 2011 was almost identical to the performance of Kaepernick and exactly what a Backup QB needed to do. But he seemed to get rattled in New York and he seen his passing gets even worse over the past 2 years. Long story short, Tim Tebow is not the backup that the patriots need, aka, a guy who chucks the ball a long way and utilizes his top receivers...not a guy who runs the ball and ignores his receivers.
The Patriots need a Patriot backup and at this point in time, they don't have one.
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