Hurley: As Usual, Tom Brady Finds A Way
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
FOXBORO (CBS) -- As Brandon LaFell and the Patriots' receiving corps continued to drop pass after pass on Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium, a game from two seasons ago instantly came to mind.
That game came in Week 2 in 2013, and in it, Brady found himself throwing in vain to rookies Aaron Dobson and Kenbrell Thompkins. The two receivers struggled to run the right routes and catch passes that hit their hands. Brady showed visible frustration that night -- a rainy Thursday evening in Foxboro -- and as a result completed just five of 17 passes thrown toward Dobson and Thompkins. Of Brady's 19 completions, 13 went to the reliable Julian Edelman. Brady finished the night with just 185 yards, his fewest in a game since outdoor games in Buffalo and Foxboro in December of 2010.
In the hours and days following that game, the major topic of conversation in New England was Brady's vocal on-field outbursts of rage and questions about the "weapons" provided to Brady in one of the final seasons of his career. The Patriots won that game against a lousy Jets team, but to say the least, the performance and response to adversity was not ideal.
This time around, Brady had plenty of reason to display similar frustration, to let the drops take him off his game, and to get distracted in a key divisional matchup with first place on the line.
But the wiser, matured Brady simply stayed the course, completing a fourth-quarter comeback and securing a seven-point victory over the Jets.
As always, Brady found a way.
It started in the second quarter, when the Jets led 10-3. Facing a third-and-10 at the Jets' 13-yard line, Brady looked to pass but had no open options. He instead tucked the ball and took off up the middle.
The Patriots needed 10 yards; Brady picked up 11.
But the job wasn't done, and the Patriots proceeded to fail to score on three straight plays from inside the 2-yard line. On fourth-and-goal, Brady took matters into his own hands, hopping up and over the line to score the team's first touchdown and tie the game at 10-10.
Brady obviously is not Michael Vick circa 2002, but the 38-year-old quarterback finished the day as the team's leading rusher for the first time in his career.
"I should enjoy it, because it'll probably never happen again," Brady said of his feat after the game.
With just five designed runs and one total rushing yard from the running backs, it was pretty clear that the coaching staff was putting this game entirely on the shoulders of Tom Brady.
In the second half, Brady relied on more traditional methods to beat the Jets, and he honed in on Danny Amendola, who was one of his most reliable targets all day long.
Brady went 21-for-30 after halftime for 233 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions.
It was, as always, vintage Brady.
"We tried to switch some things up on Tom to show him different looks. Tom is great at dissecting any defense, and that's what he did down the stretch," Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis said. "He ended up making more plays than us. He ended up finding the matchups that he wanted to find and made the throws he needed to."
When the final whistle blew, Brady had his 36th fourth-quarter comeback under his belt, moving him ahead of John Elway and into a tie with Dan Marino for the second-most of all time. (Peyton Manning ranks first with 43.) And Brady made it look as routine as possible, avoiding the theatrics of the Thompkins catch vs. New Orleans in 2013 or the highlight-reel pass to LaFell to beat Baltimore last January.
Trailing by four and facing a third-and-17 at the New England 27-yard line, Brady took a shotgun snap and waited patiently before dropping a pass perfectly over linebacker David Harris and into the bread basket of Edelman, who hauled in the 27-yard reception.
"The key play was that third-and-17 when Edelman slipped into the middle of the field on our defense and made a big play," Revis said. "I think that was the turning point. I think that's when the momentum changed."
Brady completed his next four passes for 44 yards, the last one being an eight-yard strike to Amendola on the goal line, and the Patriots took a lead for the first time since the midway point of the third quarter.
Following a defensive stop, the Patriots got the ball back with a three-point lead and 5:32 left to play. A drive ending in a field goal would make things interesting. A drive ending in a touchdown would, for all intents and purposes, end the game.
Brady clearly had the latter on his mind, completing four straight passes for 32 yards to start the drive. Tight end Michael Williams then dropped a pass off his hands before LaFell dropped his sixth pass of the day on second down. Undeterred, Brady dropped back on a third-and-10 and connected with Amendola over the middle for a gain of 11, just before the two-minute warning.
Now, with the ball at the New York 22-yard line, most teams would run the ball, force the opponent to use up all three timeouts, kick a field goal and hope the defense could prevent a touchdown in the final minutes. But, well, most teams don't have Tom Brady.
Instead of going the safe route, the Patriots came out of the two-minute warning with Brady in the shotgun and five receivers spread across the field. He hit Amendola for a gain of seven to get to the 15-yard line. On the next play, Brady faced a heavy rush from safety Marcus Gilchrist and linebacker Quinton Coples, but he casually lofted a ball over the rushers to a wide-open Rob Gronkowski. The tight end lumbered into the end zone, and the game was over, but for the fat lady singing.
The numbers are most certainly impressive, as Brady finished with 355 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions. He's on pace for more than 5,400 yards with 43 touchdowns and three interceptions, while completing 68.9 percent of his passes -- the exact same completion percentage from his historic 2007 season.
So yes, the stats are rather incredible. But it's the way Brady's doing it that really stands out. At 38 years old, he is simply dominating the NFL, and he's making it look easy.
Most importantly, he's picking up wins. As always.
Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here. You can email him or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
