He could, however, stand to learn a thing or two from himself.
That much is evident after Brady's performance on Sunday against the Jets, when he was vintage Brady in the first half and post-knee surgery Brady in the second half. It seemed so very un-Bradylike for the quarterback to lock in on Randy Moss after Darrelle Revis left the game, and it doesn't take a genius to know that it proved to be a costly mistake.
For evidence, look no further than the replay of Brady's interception to Brodney Pool. While the pass (which Moss tipped twice) wasn't the worst throw he's ever let fly, it becomes ever more troubling when you notice how incredibly open Brandon Tate was in the left slot.
While neither Brady or Bill Belichick will let us know why the quarterback made some of the decisions he did, we can take some educated guesses. The most obvious might be that Brady can't yet trust the young Tate, who has just five career catches for 53 yards. While Brady can't expect to have a superstar at every spot on the field, he might be missing the reliability of someone like Jabar Gaffney, who averaged 12.5 yards per catch in '07. The fact that Tate did seem to turn his head over the wrong shoulder and didn't seem to immediately recognize the lack of coverage on the play only strengthens that argument.
Even with that reasonable thought, it doesn't make sense given how well Brady spread the ball in the first half. His 21 first-half throws went to Moss (six), Wes Welker (six), Aaron Hernandez (four), Kevin Faulk (three), Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski (one apiece). The result was 179 yards, two touchdowns and a four-point halftime lead.
Once the Jets took the lead at the end of the third quarter, though, Moss was targeted four times, none of which were completed and one of which was intercepted. While it's not entirely accurate to say he completely abandoned the rest of the team (he targeted Sammy Morris and Hernandez twice each and Alge Crumpler and Tate once), the throws to Moss did seem to be forced. The fact that Welker's name didn't even appear in the fourth quarter game log is nearly unfathomable.
Brady explained — at least to some extent — why some of the younger guys were no longer on his radar when the outcome of the game was hanging in the balance.
"You don’t want to go into a game saying, 'All right, these younger
players, the fate of the game is resting on these guys who have played
basically a game for us.' So, you go to your reliable players, the guys
who have been dependable," he said on Monday morning on WEEI.
While it wasn't Brady's worst game, it wasn't a good one. The fact that he was outplayed by Mark Sanchez — who was deemed by millions to be the worst quarterback in the history of earth just six days previous — isn't likely to sit well with him, either.
The reaction has been varied, with the sky-is-falling pundits tying in Brady's 2009 shortcomings and saying Sunday was just one part of a larger, growing trend. That take is a bit extreme, but it would be hard to say that Brady wasn't among the biggest reasons the Patriots lost the game.
The good news is that that statement is not uttered all too often, and Brady only needs to look at his first half for inspiration. Perhaps he saw Randy Moss as Randy Moss, when instead he should have been seeing him as No. 81 — just one number among Nos. 83, 85, 19, 87, 33, 34 and 11. Back when they were winning Super Bowls, there was no number more important than any other. Back in the first half on Sunday, that was even the case.
So if it was shocking for us to watch, it was likely twice as shocking for Brady to experience.
"I was very frustrated, but I’m certainly not discouraged," he said on WEEI.
His past is enough to believe he won't be going through that same frustration any time soon.
Well — that, and the fact that he's playing the Bills on Sunday.
