Tom Brady again makes the exceptional seem routine in Patriots’ victory over Jets
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady throws the ball against the Jets.
COMMENTARY
If we allow it, our specific memories from Tom Brady’s performance in the Patriots’ victory over the Jets on Sunday afternoon will fade as the games and seasons continue to stack up like cordwood. By his standard of accomplishment, which is arguably unmatched in the history of the sport and inarguably unmatched in our debates around here, it was a typical winning Sunday for No. 12.
The standings and the scoreboard tell us that the Patriots improved to 6-0 with a hard-fought 30-23 victory over a stout Jets team. The stat sheet tells us that Brady completed 34 of 54 passes for 355 yards in the victory. He threw two touchdowns passes and vaulted, Walter Payton-style in terms of effect if not grace, over the line of scrimmage for six more points. He did not throw an interception.
That stat sheet tells us the story of an outstanding quarterback playing an outstanding game against an outstanding Jets defense, which entered the game leading the league in total defense and points allowed.
But it does not tell us everything.
No, this will not be one of the stirring or spectacular performances that our mind’s-eye immediately will queue up when we’re celebrating Brady’s career in the past tense a half-dozen or so years from now. (If you want to tell me it’s a dozen, Alex Guerrero, I’m not going to argue.)
We’ll think of the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 49 — a near-perfect, career-defining performance with so much at stake against a hellacious Seattle defense — and all of the duels with Peyton Manning. We’ll think of the aerial assault on the entire league during the 2007 season and the drive to set up Adam Vinatieri’s first Super Bowl-winning kick. We’ll think of the 517-yard game against the Dolphins in 2011 and the pair of six-TD games. There’s so much to choose from, and seemingly so much more to come.
We will not think of Sunday’s win over the Jets because Sunday was standard Brady. He was awesome in all the usual ways. The Patriots won. It’s a familiar story. We don’t take it for granted. It’s just that some chapters are more vivid than others.
But maybe we should make a point to try to remember this one a little more than we might without a conscious reminder.
Sure, it was standard Brady in that he was excellent, save for a couple of overthrows on fade patterns with tight end Rob Gronkowski and the decision to keep throwing to rusty wide receiver Brandon LaFell, who dropped five passes in his season debut.
But it was the subtleties and high degrees of difficulty in the performance and eventual victory that should help sustain our appreciation of this specific win among the 187 Brady has authored (playoffs included) in his 16-year career.
Consider: The Patriots were playing with a shorthanded offense that included just six active offensive linemen and two running backs. Gronk had 11 catches, but also had to stay in to aid the line as a blocker on several plays. Wide receiver Julian Edelman dropped a touchdown pass and was shadowed effectively by Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis all day. LaFell apparently left his hands on the physically unable to perform list.
Still, the Patriots decided the best bet was to have Brady throw, throw and throw some more against the Jets’ rock-wall of a run defense. The pass/run ratio was 6 to 1 — that’s 54 passes to nine runs, which is Arena League stuff. And who was the leading rusher? Brady, with four carries for 15 yards. They put the ball in his hands, but somehow also relied on his 38-year-old legs.
Initially, it was a struggle to get him the ball at all. At one point in the first quarter, the Jets had 10 points — and a seven-point lead — while the Patriots had run just eight plays. Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who entered the game with the same career passer rating as Tony Eason, led 15- and 14-play drives in the first quarter. The Patriots’ defense could not get off the field on third down — against Fitzpatrick! You kept waiting for the (second) turnover that never came.
The Jets led 20-16 in the fourth quarter. But Brady did what he’s done so many times — that victory number was 187, yes? — and performed at his best when the moment demanded it. He completed 7 of 8 passes for 85 yards on a drive that would culminate with an eight-yard, go-ahead touchdown pass to wide receiver Danny Amendola, who had one of his best days as a Patriot with eight catches for 86 yards. After the Jets went nowhere on their ensuing possession, Brady promptly went 7-for-9 passing for 65 yards on a drive that ended with a beautifully designed 15-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Gronk.
That ol’ stat sheet tells you that Brady completed 14 of 17 passes for 151 yards and two touchdowns on the two most crucial possessions of the game. The numbers almost do the performance justice.
It helped that the Jets, so impressive under new coach Todd (Anti-Rex) Bowles, reverted to their historically self-destructive ways in the game’s final scene, with the game ending on a careless penalty by wide receiver Brandon Marshall.
But even if they’d pulled off some last-minute, final-drive miracle to tie the game, you would have still liked the Patriots’ chances in overtime. They have Tom Brady, after all, who keeps pulling off his most familiar and yet most remarkable trick of all:
He has made stirring victories so commonplace that we must remind ourselves to set aside the merely exceptional wins as keepsakes for when our Sundays aren’t so routinely rewarding.
Chad Finn can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeChadFinn.
PHOTOS: Patriots vs. Jets
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