Wasn’t Tom Brady washed up a few weeks ago?
He was completing just 55 percent of his passes and constantly missing his receivers. It was all his fault, right?
Turns out it wasn’t. Brady looks right back to his old self again now that he has a full arsenal of receivers. Everything has clicked now that he has Rob Gronkowski, Shane Vereen and Danny Amendola back.
Brady is completing 60.7 percent of his passes after Sunday afternoon’s win over the Texans. And if he keeps up his production from the last few weeks, that could rise all the way up to his normal 64-65 percent before the season is finished.
The Patriots played sloppy on Sunday against the Texans, but outside of Brady’s interception to Johnathan Joseph, which was underthrown to Gronkowski, Brady played very well. He completed 29-of-41 passes for 371 yards and two touchdowns. He averaged 9.05 yards per attempt and spread the ball around to keep the Houston defenders on their toes.
If the Patriots are going to go to the Super Bowl this season, or even on a long playoff run, it’s going to be on Brady. After the first eight weeks of the season, it looked like New England might have to be carried by its defense. They were 6-2 despite Brady’s struggles thanks to some impressive fourth-quarter play by Matt Patricia‘s defensive unit.
New England has lost just one game since that Week 8 split, and that loss to Carolina can easily be blamed on a late touchdown allowed by the defense and a picked-up pass interference flag on the final play of the game. Brady and the offense played well all game. The defense just did not allow them to win the shootout.
It would have been nice to see the offense and defense clicking at the same time. If Gronkowski, Vereen and Amendola could have played at the same time as Vince Wilfork, Jerod Mayo and Tommy Kelly.
But it wasn’t to be, and thus, we’re left with a season split into two parts. And it seems as the defense is getting worse, the offense just keeps getting better.
Brady didn’t even get much help from his running game on Sunday. But it turns out, he doesn’t need Stevan Ridley for the Patriots to keep winning.
The Patriots have a legitimate chance to win out this season, as long as they avoid a letdown game. They came close to succumbing to that trap game on Sunday against the Texans, but they were able to come back in the second half.
It’s amazing to think this team could be on their way to another No. 1 seed after sustaining so many injuries. But when Brady is at the helm, it really seems like anything is possible.
This wasn’t the most impressive win for New England. But it was a great performance from Brady. The Texans came into the game as the No. 1 rated defense. Brady sliced them up like they were No. 32.
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