Gronkowski, at least. That pass was intercepted because it was too short. Welker is a very good short yardage WR. We REALLY should have stuck with short passes until we got a comfortable lead. That was just so stupid of Brady.
Brady also tried a long pass against the Ravens and that also got intercepted. Eli has insane accuracy when it comes to long passes. And a superior group of WRs. That was the difference in the game. Patriots really should have taken advantage of short passes and/or runs in their second to last possession.
Disagree with this again.
Gronk was 50 yards downfield. Brady can throw that far, but not if he doesn't set his feet. He had a defender bearing down on him. If he sets his feet and gathers himself to throw that ball, it doesn't even come out of his hands. As it was, he threw it and was clocked a millisecond later.
That was also a broken play obviously since Brady escaped the sack and was then outside the pocket. I don't disagree with you about the short passes. But I think the lack of a deep game has more to do with the receivers than it does Brady.
Eli gets credit for accuracy? Look, I think Eli deserved MVP and played great, but he also drove balls into the ground. If Brady were making the same kind of throws, everyone would ask, "What is wrong with him?" Instead, he pinpoints 22 passes in a row and people like Rob Parker claim he played horribly.
On the throw to Manningham, watch the replay again. I think you'll be surprised to see Manningham slow up and adjust to the ball that was thrown short. He beat Moore by five yards early in that route, but by the time he slowed down to adjust that ball to Eli's throw, Moore was on his back and even chopped his arm down. Manningham made a fantastic adjustment and a great catch, got his feet in bounds. This isn't a knock on Eli, because I don't expect QBs to throw a long ball like that into a window. That's incredibly difficult (50 yard throws into a one foot window). Instead, it's up to your WR to adjust and come down with the ball. Not a single player on the Patriots could possibly do that other than Ochocinco, and he's done.
As for running on the second to last series, the last thing they should have done was show a running set with no WRs, handoff to BJGE who loses 2 yards because the Giants stacked the line. 2nd and 3rd and long for Brady. O'Brien made a bonehead decision there to take time off the clock and run it. At least threaten play-action or handoff from the shotgun if you're going to run it. Ridiculous play call.
