Affirmation of Tom Brady's Dominance

Hat tip to Jim Storer who tweeted this post out regarding Tom Brady and the Patriots i.e. they might be a lot better than you think when you look at the pass defenses they played this year (toughest by a long shot). See the excerpted chart below for validation:

Quarterback    Passer Rating    Opp. Rating    Difference
Drew Brees               109.4               83.8               +25.6
Philip Rivers              102.8               83.4               +19.4
Tom Brady                  93.7               74.6               +19.1
Brett Favre               104.1                85.6               +18.5
Matt Schaub               98.9                82.8               +16.1
Peyton Manning        101.2                85.4               +15.8
Tony Romo                 97.8                83.3              +14.5
Ben Roethlisberger    100.6                86.2              +14.4
Eli Manning                96.0                82.6               +13.4
Aaron Rodgers          102.4                89.6              +12.8
Donovan McNabb        93.6                85.1                +8.5
Kurt Warner               93.0                89.0                +4.0



The author of this article, Kerry J. Byrne, goes on to explain...


The performance of New England’s opponents, its 74.6 Defensive Passer Rating, leaps screaming off the list. It’s a gauntlet far tougher than that which any other team in football has faced this year. In fact, it’s not even close.

The league-wide Defensive Passer Rating in the NFL this year is 83.7 — which means the average defense surrenders (and the average quarterback produces) an 83.7 passer rating.

Most of the game’s elite quarterbacks have faced defenses in that range. In fact, as you might expect from teams that face the game’s best quarterbacks, their opponents trend slightly below average, from the 82.6 that Eli Manning and the Giants have faced, to the cushy 89.6 defensive passer rating of Green Bay’s opponents.

Bottom line: given the cushy schedule faced by the likes of Peyton Manning or Kurt Warner, Brady’s numbers would be much, much better than they are already. 

What's most comforting about this article is the reminder that assuming the Pats make it into the playoffs, their likelihood of playing a top 5 passing defense again (minus maybe the Ravens) is nil until the Superbowl where they could face a rematch vs. the Saints.


Photo Credit: NBCSports

Show Your Colors

As the official NFL season kicks off this week, I dug out my Patriots jersey to get ready for Monday night. I started to recall how I came upon the jersey and thought I'd see how our crew thinks.

When you decide you're going to buy a team jersey (in any sport), what's your M.O.? Do you go with a current player? Do you choose "blank"? Do you avoid it altogether given the transient nature of superstars in all sports these days?

If I'm going to shell out the clams for a real player jersey (not just a t-shirt), I like to dig out the "old school" vets that are reminiscent of what I recall as a kid. I also like to go with a little bit obscure star. In fact my first choice for a Patriots jersey was Mosi Tatupu, but I couldn't find one. Steve Grogan was a solid 2nd choice, although a more accurate representation would have been one covered in grass stains on the back. What's your jersey of choice and how'd you decide?

Poetic Justice

Gregg Easterbrook of ESPN (also a guest columnist for Wired Magazine and The Rebublic) has a weekly column called the "Tuesday Morning Quarterback." It's way too long and some of his jokes have gotten quite stale but for the most part, it can be an amusing read from time to time.

I'm citing Mr. Easterbrook because in his TMQ column, he regularly makes a point of focusing on football karma, particularly as it relates to the way football teams handle themselves on the field. Following this weekend's loss of the number two seed in the AFC (the Colts) and the number one seed in the NFC (the Cowboys) one can't help but think that a bit of poetic justice was served for earlier decisions made by both teams' top brass.

Rewind two weeks to the final game of the NFL season and you'll know what I'm talking about. The fate of the once hapless Cleveland Brown's lay in the hands of one Indianapolis Colts team. All the Browns needed was for the 13-2 Colts to beat a sub-par 9-6 Tennessee Titans team and the Browns were in the playoffs for the first time since 2002. It's true that it was the Brown's that put themselves the tenuous position of needing the Colt's help but that's neither here nor there...

So why does this have anything to do with poetic justice? Well, Indianapolis decided to sit their first stringers after one series in that fateful game against Tennessee, lost by a hair and thus propelled a not-very-good Titans team into the playoffs instead of the Browns. Because the Titans owned the worst record of wild card teams in the AFC, they would play the three seed -- the surging San Diego Chargers -- in the first round of the playoffs. After putzing around for two quarters, the Bolts took charge and dismissed the Titans earning them a shot at the Colts.

Now there's no guarantee that the Browns would have knocked off the Chargers in the first round of the playoffs but on paper, they matched up a lot better than the Titans did. For one, they have a quarterback in Derek Anderson that can actually throw the ball. They also have a bruising running back in Jamal Lewis that would have kept San Diego's fearsome defense honest. Instead, the Browns went home leaving the Chargers to dismiss the Titans, a move that ultimately positioned San Diego to knock off last year's Super Bowl champs.

While Dallas' decision to mail it in on the last game of the season and rest their starters didn't affect the fate of the Minnesota Vikings -- a team that also needed help from the Redskins and the Saints -- the way the Colts did, it could have. The Redskins were playing Dallas, in Dallas, on the last game of the season and on paper, should have been crushed by Big D. Minnesota ultimately made it a moot point by losing to Denver but if they had won, the Dallas game would have upset the applecart. I can't help but think that this played into Big D's surprising loss to the G-men of New York.

To that end, one also can't help but think that the G-men's willingness to man up and play their starters for the entire game against the 15-0 Pats, helped their football karma significantly. Fans around the league universally agree that the Pat's perfect 16-0 record would have been a little less meaningful if the Giants had rolled over for New England in the last game of the season. Instead, Tom Coughlin's decision to play his starters for the entire game -- a game the Giants kept close right up until the end -- ultimately led to positive momentum for the Giants in the next two rounds of the playoffs.

Dallas' and Indianapolis' losses yesterday can definitely be chalked up to the "angering of the football gods." The Giants' and the Pats' wins on the other hand can be chalked up to good football karma. Ditto for the Packers who have one of the all time "good guy" QBs at their helm. Not sure about the Chargers fate yet as in winning the game, they may have lost LT and Phil Rivers for the rest of the season. Only time will tell.

Oh yeah, anyone still wondering if Tom Brady is the best QB ever? I didn't think so...