Here's the thing with the Patriots and Brady, and his decline. The Patriots organization pinched pennies, spent money in the wrong place, and did not come up with a plan for when Brady aged. They cut corners on the offensive line, cut corners at wide receiver, and did not gameplan around a 1,000+ yard back. In those years, Brady got crushed. Pats fans who have watched every game over the last 2 years have seen a Brady who was very different than his early career, he sees ghosts, he ducks, he doesn't stand as tall in the pocket... And why? Because:
Brady got hit 81 times in 2013, sacked 40 times. It's actually a good hit:sack ratio compared to some other players... But Peyton Manning was hit only 50 times in 2013. Brady was hit 67 times in 2012. Manning, 46. This season, Brady is the most hit quarterback.
At some point -- when your QB reaches age 36, 37, 38 -- these numbers add up. And when you have no weapons, no commitment to running the ball, no offensive line, and a frenetic over-thinking gameplan, your nearly 38-year-old quarterback is going to suffer.
Yeah, people are insane if they think that Brady is not starting next week and generally every week for the rest of the season. If you put Jimmy Garoppolo out there with this offensive line and lack of weapons, it's not going to be any different.
The Patriots need to establish a running game and then those 2 TE, 2 WR sets will be a lot more threatening. This is the direction they were going in in 2012, and it looked like they had a solid foundation for the future by taking the air off the ball and focusing on 2 TE, run, playaction offense. Hernandez murdering those people threw that gameplan off, but they need to go back to it.
((((
