We don’t see it too often. Tom Brady struggling to really do anything of substance on the football field. Arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history, it’s seemingly not in Brady’s DNA to put up a dud of a performance.
That changed in the New England Patriots’ blowout home loss to the Kansas City Chiefs this past Thursday. Brady was vastly outplayed by veteran Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith, completing just 16-of-36 passes for 267 yards without a touchdown in the 42-27 loss.
Now that the numbers are coming in from Week 1’s slate, this one stat shows just how bad Brady was in the defending champ’s opening-season loss.
With the likes of Josh McCown, Scott Tolzien, Tom Savage and Brian Hoyer starting games around the NFL in Week 1, that’s a stunning stat.
Whether Brady missed Julian Edelman big time or struggled connecting with new players, he was completely off his game on Thursday. The inaccuracy was obvious on tape. He consistently overthrew his receivers, tossed other balls wide and just was not on his game against a good Chiefs defense.
Yes, even a deity like Brady can receive criticism for a lackluster performance.
Now that this is settled and his one bad performance is behind him, we can fully expect Brady to make mincemeat of a disastrous New Orleans Saints defense in Week 2.
After all, Sam Bradford completed 27-of-32 passes for 346 yards and three touchdowns in Minnesota’s Week 1 win over the Saints on Monday night. Should Brady struggle against New Orleans, maybe we should worry. Until then, one bad game means very little in the grand scheme of things.
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