Tom Brady is a magician pinpointing a football in whatever position his little heart so pleases. He knows the playbook better than those who wrote it and last but not least, he is a winner.
New England kicked off last night's game by immediately putting any Tom Brady injury woes to rest, and handing Pats fans one of the best quarterbacking performances in recent history. Through the first two series of the game, Tom Brady attempted 12 passes and he completed all but one of them, amounting for 107 passing yards.
Brady has missed just 2 passes on 18 attempts through 2 games, hurling 3 touchdown passes and once again proving to be crucial as last night he and Danny Amendola tag teamed for countless receptions throughout the night.
"We wanted to start fast. That was our goal," Amendola said referencing their capping off a opening drive 26 yard touchdown reception "I felt like we made some plays early and it was good that we got on the board early, too."
Amendola was almost as good as the man throwing to him. He contributed 7 catches dropping nothing and helping convert on 4, 3rd down situations. But above all, he contributed what for a long time stood as the deciding score in this game.
On 1st and 10 at the Patriot 25 yard line, Brady dropped back into the pocket all before quickly realizing that Amendola had skillfully split the defense and was running 1 on 1 towards the end zone. Stepping into the pass, Brady did not miss hitting Amendola in the perfect spot right as the receiver somersaulted in for the touchdown.
New England then went for the 2 point conversion, a move that even after Brady once again threw a perfect pass to Zach Sudfeld to make it an 8-0 ball game, prompted an explanation from Bill Belicheck.
"No, it was getting the experience of the situation of a two-point play. We weren't trying to catch anybody off-guard." Belicheck said when asked if the move was made to catch the Buccaneers off guard.
As for Ryan Mallet, he completed 12 of 20 passes for 137 yards and a beautiful touchdown pass to Zach Sudfeld who had a spectacular game for the Patriots. The Patriots would add a pic six touchdown return before Mallet left the game but one he did things suddenly got close. With Tebow coming in, the Patriot 3rd stringer went just 1 for 7 with an interception and -1 yard passing...but the interception hurt the most.
"It was definitely something I shouldn't have thrown," he said. "You want to do your best and play to the best of your ability and have it all go right, and sometimes it doesn't. You just have to keep going."
Tebow did run for 30 yards but in the near full quarter that he was on the field, his team failed to score a single point under Tebow's command.
"I think any competitor does [think it is frustrating that he could not produce any offence]. You want to score every time you get the ball. You want to make every throw," he said. "Some things we did well. Some areas have got to get better and got to improve."
But in the end the Patriots came out on top, casting aside Tebow's late game struggles and holding off a surge by Tampa mostly with their strong pocket attack. Between guys like Rob Nincovich, Brandon Spikes and Chandler Jones, Tampa quarterbacks were sacked a total of 4 times, a constant pressure that by the end of the game had, in addition to the sacks, forced 10 incompletions in just one of the QB's Tampa put out on the field.
So much of last night's game stood out. You had Brady's surgical attack on the first 25 plays of the game, then Amendola's shocking dominance proving to his quarterback and the world that he was the real deal. You had the sacks, the pass defense, and the defense altogether that ripped the Buccaneers apart and earned the New England Patriot's their second win of the preseason.
Tebow was not perfect...Brady was.
0 comments:
Post a Comment