Though he’s only two years removed from reconstructive knee surgery and playing without star wideout Randy Moss, Tom Brady is playing the best football of his career. Through week 14, Brady has thrown for 29 touchdowns and only four interceptions. The All-Pro quarterback is actually on pace to break his previous record of 50 touchdowns and eight interceptions thrown in the 2007 season (a ratio of 6.25) with a current ratio of 7.25. What makes Brady’s season so impressive is how he’s been doing it.
Brady was playing well and looking good the first three weeks of the season, throwing for eight touchdowns, two interceptions and 254 yards per game. The team went 2-1, losing to the Jets on the road, and then they dropped the bombshell that they were trading Randy Moss after he went catchless in a blowout win over the Dolphins.
Tom threw for only one touchdown three straight games and threw for fewer than 160 yards once after Moss was traded. New England appeared to be conservative offensively, lacking a big-play threat, and content to squeak out wins with a complete team effort. But after getting shellacked by the Cleveland Browns in week nine everything changed.
The Pats have won five in a row and have defeated some of the best teams in the league. It’s not just the fact that New England has beaten the Steelers and Bears on the road, as well as the Colts and Jets at home, but how they’ve done so. They’ve scored no fewer than 31 points in any of their five straight wins and they’ve reached 45 twice. Brady has thrown for at least 326 yards in four of those five games and 15 touchdowns with no interceptions. Oh yeah, he also accounted for a rushing touchdown against the Steelers.
Brady has now thrown for 19 touchdowns and no interceptions in his last eight games. What makes matters even more impressive is that he’s done so playing in brutal field conditions at home, on the road, in domes, and in every situation you can think of. The man threw for 369 yards Sunday against the Bears in a blizzard.
With the way the Pats have been playing, it’s hard to think anyone will beat them in the playoffs, especially if they get to host two games at Gillette. They’re looking like the team I picked to win the Super Bowl, and Tom Brady is looking like the league’s MVP.
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