Tom Brady Finds New Ways To Impress And Other Leftover Patriots Thoughts
BOSTON (CBS) -- Should we still be surprised at Tom Brady doing something incredible? Because I am.
I know it's only Buffalo, and that for all their bluster and confidence they are the same Bills that Tom Brady and the Patriots always beat. (For clarity's sake, "always" means 24 out of 27 times for Brady since '01, and 26 of 29 times for the Patriots in that same span.)
But even the most cynical person can agree that clearly, this was supposed to be a special Sunday over in Buffalo. The head coach, the players, the fans and the whole city treated this Week 2 matchup like it was their Super Bowl, and the energy in Ralph Wilson Stadium was apparent to anybody watching.
And when the Bills steamrolled their way down the field on the opening drive, taking 10 plays to move 80 yards in just five minutes, the fans who had planned to set a Guinness World Record for noise seemed well on their way toward setting a new mark.
The noise reached a fever pitch when Brady and the Patriots took over. Brady completed a pair of 1-yard passes, and on third-and-8, Brady struggled to effectively communicate with the receivers and the offensive line, forcing the quarterback to call a timeout. The stadium erupted.
Following an incompletion and a Patriots punt, Brady got an assist from the Patriots' defense, which forced Buffalo into a three-and-out. At that point, the game could have gone one of two ways. The Patriots could have struggled again offensively, succumbing to the crowd noise and the energy of the home team and falling into a deeper hole. Or, they could have followed the lead of their composed quarterback and make a divisional road win look relatively easy.
You know by now, of course, that the Patriots took the latter route, but it really all started on that second New England drive.
Brady completed a pass to a wide open Aaron Dobson for 16 yards. Brady took the next shotgun snap and scanned left before looking right and delivering an absolute bullet into the hands of a sprinting Rob Gronkowski for a gain of 36 yards. Two plays later, Brady hit Julian Edelman over the middle for 7 yards. And on the next snap, Brady waited for Edelman to get open at the front right corner of the end zone. Running to his right, the quarterback delivered a strike directly to Edelman's chest.
The receiver waltzed into the back of the end zone, advised the home crowd to sit down, and delivered a Gronkowski-level spike into the turf. The Patriots -- or, the offense, at least -- never looked back.
The performance contrasts with last year's showing in Kansas City, when the Patriots punted after falling behind 7-0, and they trailed 14-0 shortly thereafter. The offense never got going and the game spiraled out of control, with the Chiefs taking a 27-0 lead in the third quarter. There have been other games like that, too -- New Orleans in '09, New York in '10, Buffalo in '11, Seattle in '12, Carolina in '13. In all of those road losses, the Patriots struggled to stay above water for the duration of the contests.
Sunday's game could very well have played out in a similar fashion, but Brady and the offense flipped the script.
It was just one new chapter in the magnum opus of Brady's career, but the quarterback nevertheless manages to find new ways to impress.
Brady wasn't the only story, so let's roll through some leftover thoughts from the Patriots' 40-32 win in Buffalo.
--Over the years, there have always been certain things that make me irate when seeing them play out. For example, when Mike Vrabel would come on as a goal line tight end and idiotic opponents failed to cover him on a quick out, it filled me with rage. And last week, when the Steelers defense simply forgot about the existence of Rob Gronkowski, it was frustrating to see. These are supposed to be the best players and the best coaches on earth, yet we see such terrible work so often that it's truly annoying to see such brain-dead decisions.
And on Sunday, Rex Ryan's defense provided such a moment. It came early in the second quarter, when it was still very much a ballgame at 14-7. The Patriots came out in their four tight end set (Rob Gronkowski, Scott Chandler, Michael Williams, Michael Hoomanwanui) and motioned Gronkowski and Chandler out wide left. If this sounds familiar, it's because the Patriots did the exact same thing last week against Pittsburgh.
Yet Rex Ryan's defense reacted as if the Patriots had just busted out a brand new, never-before-seen formation. They were confused. And at the point of the snap, Bills defenders were too busy yelling at each other and figuring out what to do to even be troubled to look at the line of scrimmage.
Surprise, surprise -- scrambling at the snap didn't really work out for Buffalo. Gronkowski walked through the end zone uncovered and caught an easy touchdown. Linebacker Nigel Bradham literally threw a hissy fit, jumping into the air and stomping his feet in rage.
Remember, earlier in the week, Rex Ryan took a jab at Mike Tomlin's Steelers, saying, "I will say this, it's better to put one guy on him than nobody on him. We'll try to have somebody on him, at least."
And that's the same Rex Ryan who said his Bills have been game-planning for the Patriots for a long time, and that the game plan was set in stone long before this week began.
"Shoot, I'll go home early," Ryan said. "I'm ... gonna be ready. That plan's been ready for a long time."
Well, Rex, not quite. Do better.
--Then again, that's the same Rex Ryan who threw a challenge flag in hopes of turning a fourth-and-16 from his own 23-yard line into a fourth-and-9 from his own 29-yard line. So maybe I'm giving Rex Ryan's coaching acumen too much credit here.
--Look, if you want to be a loser adult human being who makes signs like this guy, then feel free. It's your life. But please, for the love of all that is holy, please -- please -- insert some punctuation. You're embarrassing yourself. (Well, you know, as much as a loser adult human being who makes this sign can further embarrass himself.)
--There are many ways to measure a quarterback's worth, and when people judge solely on arm strength, they put Aaron Rodgers at No. 1. And rightfully so. That guy is awesome. But don't discount the 38-year-old Brady's arm. That 36-yard pass to Gronkowski was unbelievable. Right over the linebackers, and right into the hands of a streaking Gronkowski.
--Gronkowski also made arguably the most incredible catch of his career on that leaping play up the right sideline in the second quarter. His toe ended up being out of bounds, but still. People his size should not be that athletic.
--I can summarize the entire game using just two plays. First: Marcell Dareus hops on top of Tom Brady on third-and-9 and popped up to celebrate as if he had just won the Super Bowl.
Huzzah! But wait. A flag. The Bills committed one of their 500 penalties. Defensive holding. First down, Patriots, who drove 50 yards down the field and tacked on a field goal.
The second play came on Buffalo's onside kick attempt in the fourth quarter. Referee Ronald Torbert (who got more screen time during the game than Donald Trump got during the Republican debate last week) stepped to the middle of the field and announced, "There were three fouls on the play, all by the kicking team."
Always and forever, Buffalo gonna Buffalo.
--Rex Ryan may still not know Dion Lewis' name, because for whatever reason the head coach hates the running back. But I'd imagine Stephon Gilmore knows Lewis as "The 5-foot-8 Dude Who Absolutely Ran Me Over."
--Bradley Fletcher: Not very good. Also, water: wet. What a strange signing for a team that lost Darrelle Revis.
--Once again, Buffalo gonna Buffalo.
--Do you think all of those rich, famous people from that commercial really use their phones/watches/TVs to order Dominos? Myself, I have my doubts.
--It's apparent by now that Julian Edelman cannot be covered. Even when bracketed by two defenders, he can get wide open to score touchdowns. But an underrated part of Edelman's game is his ability to squeeze his way up the field for extra yards. He just refuses to go down, which many times works to his physical detriment but almost always results in more yards for the Patriots.
It's a mind-set that can turn a second-and-20 from the 10-yard line into a manageable third-and-1.
First contact:
Edelman finally goes down:
--Again, Rex Ryan: "It's better to put one guy on him than nobody on him. We'll try to have somebody on him, at least."
And yet ...
--At one point in the third quarter, the CBS broadcast zoomed in on a replay of Tom Brady making hand signals to the receivers before the snap.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't millions of idiots get all worked up into a lather a couple of weeks ago when ESPN.com ran a 10,000-word story that, among other things, accused the cheating Patriots of being awful cheats because they watched video footage of Peyton Manning's hand signals? That happened, right?
So if you watched Sunday's game, congratulations. You're officially a cheater now!
--Football looks cool sometimes.
--The Patriots are 2-0. The Jaguars are next on the schedule. Then they get the Romo-less and Dez-less Cowboys. Then they get the Colts, a team they beat twice by a combined 60 points last year. The schedule really never gets too difficult after that -- trips to the Giants and Broncos might be tough, but maybe not.
The team is not stacked with enough talent to run the table, but at this point it looks anything short of a 13-3 or 14-2 season would be very surprising.
Tom Brady, man who endured eight months of stupidity and nonsense after earning Super Bowl MVP honors in February, a penny for your thoughts?
Screen shots from NFL.com/GamePass.
Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here. You can email him or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
