FOXBORO, Mass. — Tom Brady wants more from the New England Patriots’ passing offense, which means only one thing: He could have a monster game against the Oakland Raiders on Sunday.
Brady’s unhappiness comes after an impressive 30-7 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. His stats — a 56.4 percent completion percentage, 78.9 passer rating and just two touchdowns — might not be to his liking, but he looked much better against the Vikings than he did against the Miami Dolphins in Week 1, when his offensive line let him down.
Some of Brady’s perceived troubles stem from a familiar place — he’s keying in on wide receiver Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski too heavily and ignoring his other receivers.
“I think that’s definitely a big part of what we’re trying to do offensively to make us hard to defend is to be able to throw the ball to everybody,” Brady said Wednesday about the majority of his targets going to Edelman and Gronkowski. “And you’re right, those guys have seen a majority of throws, and I’ve got to do a better job finding the other guys because it’s a lot of good routes, they’re big targets, guys are working really hard to get open.”
Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels dispelled any worries that Brady doesn’t trust his other receivers, however, and helped explain why Edelman and Gronkowski — the Patriots’ best receivers — are so heavily targeted.
“I don’t think it’s a lack of communication or lack of being on the same page,” McDaniels said Tuesday during his conference call with the media. “First of all, we only threw the ball 22 times the other day, and many of those were in two-receiver-type settings or came out quick in three-step drops and those kinds of things, and a lot of times the coverage dictates where the ball goes. I don’t think it was a case of Tom misreading the coverage or Tom not looking in any specific direction.
“We have all our guys in the pattern, and Tom is capable of reading the coverage out and throwing it to the right guy and always does a great job of that. Sometimes that means the ball is going to go certain places more than others. There is always a place you start with your read, and sometimes if the guy happens to be open right away, you don’t need to go any further. We always try to be balanced and distribute the ball to all of our skill players.”
That’s what showed up on film, as well. Brady never ignored an open wide receiver to throw to a heavily covered Edelman or Gronkowski. Brady’s goal obviously was to get rid of the ball quickly — likely because his offensive line doesn’t give him time to go through a full set of reads.
Brady has attempted 78 passes this season, and 32 of those targets have gone Edelman or Gronkowski’s way. Brady struggled with his deep passes in Week 1, and his opportunities were limited in Week 2 because the Patriots used their running game heavily in the fourth quarter while they were trying to kill the clock.
The Patriots’ passing offense hasn’t been able to click just yet, but this week’s game, which should be a blowout, could be the perfect opportunity.
“I don’t think our passing game has been really stellar to this point, so it’s hard to sustain much over the course of the game and get those guys the ball when we’re not doing as good a job as we’re capable of,” Brady said. “We’ve got to keep going after it, and guys get more opportunities to get balls, and I need to do a better job finding those guys when they’re open and running the routes that we talk about all week.”
