Tom Brady Gets Angry
Tom Brady by Keith Allison, on Flickr
Around here, it’s rare to see so many fans excited about (or at least in awe of) a loss. But that’s sort of the case this morning. The 49ers beat the Patriots, 41-34, on a nasty Sunday night at Gillette Stadium, but everybody’s talking about Tom Brady’s performance, which seemed downright vengeful. The “angry” quarterback led four straight second-half touchdown drives, bringing his team back from a 31-3 deficit. New England faltered in the final few minutes, but it was nonetheless an amazing display.
Here’s what the Internet had to say about Brady’s performance:
Angry Brady. Deadspin recaps the game via three GIFs. Look how much air Brady gets on his angry spike! [Deadspin]
Bothering Brady. Apparently, you don’t have to send extra rushers to fluster Brady (at least slightly). “Well, for the 49ers the answer was clearly to trust your pass rush as they blitzed on ONLY 12 of Brady’s 69 drop-backs, and they were successful with either tactic,” writes Ben Stockwell of Pro Football Focus. “The key was to make the most of pressure, which they did by recording a sack on one in five of the drop-backs on which they recorded pressure, while collecting their pair of interceptions on plays where they didn’t pressure Brady.” [Pro Football Focus]
Better than Brady? In his Monday Morning QB column, Peter King (rightfully) gushes about San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick, the winning quarterback. “It’s the first Patriots’ home loss in December in 10 years, and that’s not a misprint,” King writes. “‘You just beat Tom Brady!’ a smiling, wide-eyed [coach] Jim Harbaugh told Kaepernick when he found him on the field after the game.” Ugh. [SI.com]
Brady is sneaky. Grantland’s Bill Barnwell unearths an insane statistic about Brady’s prowess in short yardage situations. “One of those fourth-down conversions [Sunday night] was the Tom Brady leaping sneak that picked up a touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line,” Barnwell writes. “Now, you probably have an idea that Tom Brady’s pretty good on quarterback sneaks, but did you know how good? On fourth-and-1 during his career, Brady is 18-for-19. Eighteen-for-19! He hasn’t been stopped on a fourth-down carry since 2002. Throw in his sneaks on the first three downs from the 1-yard line and Brady’s 25-for-33 with a yard to go. He should become a goal-line back if he ever throws out his arm.” [Grantland]
We’ll leave you with this: A quick scan of Pro Football Reference reveals that a team quarterbacked by Brady hasn’t trailed by 28 points ore more since the 2003 season opener, when the Patriots fell to the Bills, 31-0. As football fans, we’re pretty spoiled.
