Tom Brady Looks Extremely Sharp In First Action Of Preseason
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Heading into Thursday night's preseason game, there may have been some actual doubt in some circles of New England about how Tom Brady might look. After all, he's 41 years old, he apparently is dealing with a sore back, his receiving corps appears to be somewhat lacking, and he skipped all of the optional offseason workouts. Might there be some evident rust in his game?
It didn't take long to learn that answer was a resounding no.
Brady took the field after a three-and-out by the Eagles to start the game. Aside from the jumbo helmet surrounding his melon, he looked like the same old Brady.
Relying mostly on running back James White, the Patriots' offense marched down the field with relative ease against the Eagles, quickly putting six points on the board.
Brady didn't quite air it out on the drive, but he also led the no-huddle offense with ease and had the Patriots' offense looking like, well the Patriots' offense.
Brady was 5-for-5 on the drive for 26 yards and a touchdown.
Three of those receptions went to White, for a total of 19 yards. One pass went to Phillip Dorsett, for a short four-yard gain. And one went to Hogan, after Brady had escaped the pocket and found his reliable receiver. Hogan found space for himself in man coverage and hauled in the touchdown.
Brady's second drive of the night was not quite as crisp. He threw two deep passes -- one to Dorsett, one to Hogan -- that could have (and perhaps should have) been intercepted. He also didn't connect on a throw to Cordarrelle Patterson running a post pattern. Whether it was an imprecise route or a misfire from Brady wasn't obvious.
Brady did connect with Julian Edelman for the first time since last August for an eight-yard pickup early in the drive, but that was the lone completion of the drive for Brady. The drive ended in a punt.
Brady was sharp once again on his third drive of the game, which came late in the first quarter. On that drive, he went 6-for-7 for 44 yards. The lone incompletion came on a pass that split the 1 and 5 on Hogan's jersey but was not caught. The drive ended with a successful 37-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski.
In his next drive, Brady went just 1-for-2 for 4 yards on a three-and-out.
But Brady's night was not done. He headed out to lead the offense midway through the second quarter, after the Eagles had scored to cut New England's lead to 17-7 (the Patriots had scored a touchdown on defense). Brady completed a pass on a crossing pattern to Edelman for a gain of five yards. Two plays later, Brady connected for the first time with Patterson on a play-action screen, a play which worked for a big gain of 23 yards.
On the next snap, Brady avoided pressure, scrambled right, waited patiently, and instead of throwing it away, lofted a pass that allowed tight end Will Tye to high-point the pass and haul it in for a gain of 11 yards. Tye dropped a pass in his bread basket two plays later, setting up a third-and-12. On that play, Brady took a shotgun snap and escaped pressure, but had to throw the ball away when he had no options. Gostkowski successfully kicked a 49-yard field goal to give the Patriots a 20-7 lead.
Brady came back out for one more drive before halftime, and he looked like vintage Brady. He hit tight end Jacob Hollister perfectly in stride for a gain of 22 yards, and he followed it up with a bullet to Hogan on the right sideline for a gain of eight (plus another 15 yards on a facemask penalty).
On the next play, Brady threw to White and let the running back do the rest. The Patriots blocked it well all the way up the field, allowing White to turn the reception into a 20-yard touchdown.
In total in the first half, Brady completed 19 of his 26 passes (73.1 percent) for 172 yards and two touchdowns. The Patriots scored points on four of his six drives under center.
