Patriots Sending Clear Message: Angry Tom Brady As Good As Ever

(Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

(Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

We don’t know how Jimmy Garoppolo would have played had he been thrust into action for the first four games of the year, but we know this: he wouldn’t have played the way Tom Brady has these last two weeks.

Brady has been exceptional. Through two weeks, he leads the NFL in passing yards (754), completions (63) and is tied for the league lead in touchdown passes (7). The 38 year old Brady looks as good as ever, after an off-season where he had to make two appearances in a Manhattan federal courtroom simply to get back on the field. While Judge Richard Berman may have vindicated Brady by vacating Commissioner Roger Goodell’s overreaching deflategate punishment, the Patriots quarterback is out for more than redemption in a courtroom. This season is his revenge tour.

Lord have mercy on the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The poor Jags come to Foxboro facing a Brady-led Patriots offense that is fresh off a 40 point performance in Buffalo, against a dominating Bills defense and the 71,000 rowdy Brady-haters that packed Ralph Wilson Stadium. A determined Brady quickly silenced Buffalo’s loudest and proudest super fans (who arrive in their RVs days before the game), putting on a surgical performance seemingly few other than Brady could.

There are few teams who can stop Brady at this point, and the Jacksonville Jaguars aren’t one of them. We’re on to Dallas.

The 2007 Patriots, fresh off their first scandal, went on the revenge tour of a lifetime (we don’t need to recap how it ended). The 2015 Patriots are on a similar quest, but this time it’s not for their coach, it’s for their quarterback. Bill Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels have made a concentrated effort to not just beat their first two opponents, but to make sure their Hall of Fame quarterback is the person ripping opposing defenses to shreds.

In Buffalo, Brady’s revenge tour was on display for the nation to see, throwing 59 passes and continuing to go to the air deep into the fourth quarter when any other team in the league would have run the ball to try and kill the clock. McDaniels even called for a touchdown-seeking deep pass from Brady to Julien Edelman on fourth and one late in the game. The Patriots may have gone to a pass-heavy game plan against the stout run defense of the Bills, but make no mistake it’s a message sent by the Patriots to the world that Brady has always been, and is still, better than anybody else. That message will be hammered home all season long. It’s arrogance at its finest, but something tells me Patriots fans, after an offseason of attacks from the entire nation, don’t mind the approach at all.

Maybe this tour de force won’t end with Brady hoisting his fifth Lombardi trophy, there are questions about this team that won’t be answered until January. But no matter where it ends, enjoy the ride, it looks like Pats fans could be witnessing a special year from number 12.

Contrary to popular belief, revenge isn’t often sweet, but this time, it is. Just ask Tom Brady.

Matt McCarthy is the sports anchor for the Cape Cod Morning News on 107.5 WFCC and is a news reporter and anchor for 99.9 The Q and Ocean 104.7.

Comments

  1. Excellent, well-written article about a superb athlete.

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