Troy Polamalu faked out on Tom Brady touchdown pass

Troy Polamalu is one of the best safeties in the NFL and makes more game-changing plays than most defensive backs. He’s exciting, instinctive, and a hard hitter. Remember this play he made against Jake Locker earlier in the season? That was beautiful.

But, as we’ve shown in the past, he can get lost in pass coverage at times. Tom Brady made Polamalu pay on Sunday in one of his best touchdown passes of the season.

On the first play after a Patriots interception, Brady threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Danny Amendola. He first looked for Julian Edelman on the near sideline, which caused Polamalu to start running over to help in coverage. Brady pump-faked causing Polamalu to bite, which left Amendola wide open across the middle.

Polamalu was going so hard after Edelman that he had to turn around to try recovering. You can see how wide open Amendola was in this shot:

Polamalu plays aggressively on the field which helps his team but also hurts them at times. That play was one of the times it hurt.

GIF via GIFD Sports