Patriots journal: Brady questions his team’s toughness

[mesaSteeler]

Patriots journal: Brady questions his team’s toughness

01:00 AM EST on Monday, December 7, 2009
http://www.projo.com/patriots/conten...3.38ac4b2.html
By SHALISE MANZA YOUNG Journal Sports Writer

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Dressed much more casually than normal after a road game, a weary Tom Brady questioned the toughness of his team, which has lost two games in a row for the first time in two years and seems incapable of getting a victory away from home.

“I think we’ve got to find a way to play better football for 60 minutes, in all phases, and everyone has got to focus on what they need to do better. I think that’s the most important thing: being mentally tough to overcome adversity,” Brady said. “When things don’t go your way, you have to fight back. That’s a challenge for all of us. I think at times we do, and at times I don’t think we fight very hard.

“We have leads in the second half and leads in the fourth quarter and we’re just not closing the game out when we have the opportunity to.”

Calling the Patriots’ collective toughness into question was definitely Brady making a statement. With four games left to right the ship before the playoffs (assuming they are headed there), it will be interesting to see if his teammates respond.

Henne on the rise

It is no secret that the Dolphins’ brain trust is very high on quarterback Chad Henne, who took over as the starter in Week Three when Chad Pennington suffered a season-ending shoulder injury.

But as with any young quarterback — Henne was drafted last year — there are fits and starts to endure. Last week in Buffalo, he gave Miami fits, throwing three interceptions. But this week against New England, he had his share of starts as he completed 29 of 52 passes for 335 yards, all career-highs.

“Chad did a good job, he really did. We just felt like we could throw the ball and we did,” Miami head coach Tony Sparano said. “We just believed wholeheartedly that Chad has been getting better and better and was going to be able to handle that if we didn’t do too much. What I mean by that is we felt there were some good staples in this plan that we could repeat. We ran a lot of repeated plays out there today, things that he really likes.”

For the books

In the loss, there were a few milestones achieved:

•On his 81-yard touchdown pass to Aiken, Brady eclipsed 30,000 career passing yards. Brady is the 31st player in NFL history to eclipse that mark, and is the third this season, joining the Eagles’ Donovan McNabb and the Cardinals’ Kurt Warner. Brady came into the game needing 268 yards for the milestone. Last week he passed Drew Bledsoe as New England’s all-time leader in passing yardage.

•Randy Moss had 66 receiving yards, giving him 1,058 yards for the season, his 10th with over 1,000 yards. He is just the second receiver with double-digit seasons over 1,000 yards, joining Jerry Rice, who had 14. With 14,259 career yards, Moss is now 222 shy of passing former Colt Marvin Harrison for fifth place all-time.

•For the third straight year, both Moss and Wes Welker have eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards. Welker racked up 167 on Sunday, giving him 1,053 for the season.

•With 10 catches, Welker now has 95 for the season, which leads the NFL. He is on pace for 133 receptions this year (in only 14 games), which would not only shatter his team record but come in as the second-most for a single season.

[The Patriot]

Tom, how about we try to score more than three times a game. It could really help us out.

[The_WARDen]

Originally Posted by The Patriot

Tom, how about we try to score more than three times a game. It could really help us out.

21 pts isn't enough for the defensive genius of all-time? Dang it! I keep forgetting...he doesn't know what the offense is calling now. My bad!

Yes, Tom...score more points to bail out your overrated coach.

[revefsreleets]

Eh....that's actually not all that douchey of him....at least he's not dumping all the blame on others and saying "they", which is what I'd expect.

Think about it...this has GOT to suck for Marsha. He's used to getting the defensive plays piped into his helmet, tossing 50 TD's, winning games at a feverish pace, then he gets hurt, and comes back to find out the party is over.

So he goes back to tossing 28 TD's and 14 INT's and winning 10 or so games and probably not going to the Super Bowl again. It's a lot to digest. When things level out entirely, and he stops getting pub, stops makig Pro Bowls, and he's traded because his contract is too big for an above-average QB, things are REALLY going to get ugly for him.

But I can't feel too sorry. He's uber rich. He's already made more money than the entire lifelong net worth of EVERY poster on this board combined. He's got some (ill-begotten) rings. He's set up for life. Boo-hoo....

[stlrtruck]

Originally Posted by revefsreleets

So he goes back to tossing 28 TD's and 14 INT's and winning 10 or so games and probably not going to the Super Bowl again. It's a lot to digest. When things level out entirely, and he stops getting pub, stops makig Pro Bowls, and he's traded because his contract is too big for an above-average QB, things are REALLY going to get ugly for him.

If Al Davis is still alive, he'll be in Oakland with an even more outrageous contract.

[The Patriot]

Originally Posted by revefsreleets

So he goes back to tossing 28 TD's and 14 INT's and winning 10 or so games and probably not going to the Super Bowl again. It's a lot to digest. When things level out entirely, and he stops getting pub, stops makig Pro Bowls, and he's traded because his contract is too big for an above-average QB, things are REALLY going to get ugly for him.

28 TD's and 10 or so games. What a travesty.

[Dino 6 Rings]

When you're losing everyone is to blame...

We Know!

[The Patriot]

The media hard at work.

During his postgame comments, Brady called out his teammates after watching the Patriots lose leads of 14-0 and 21-10, saying “at times I don’t think we fight very hard.”

Brady had an opportunity to back off that comment Monday. He didn’t. During his weekly appearance on WEEI, Brady said the Patriots need more commitment in their preparation.

“I’ve been here 10 years, and I’ve seen a lot of players and teams,” Brady said on The Dennis and Callahan Show. “It starts on Monday in our preparation. It starts on Wednesday through five hours of meetings and walk-thrus that we do, and practice [and] film study. I think when it gets hard, that’s when you have to dig deep. At times, we do that. And other times, it doesn’t show up.

“We’ve all got to do a better job of that. We’ve all got to put more work in and put more time in and put more commitment into each other. It’s a different team. We have a lot of new players. We’re trying, over the course of the season, learn each other and learn things we do well and things we don’t do so well. And that takes a lot of commitment. I have a lot of confidence in our team, and I have a lot of confidence that we do play tough, and we do play physical, and we do play smart … I just don’t think — as coach would say, and he says this to us all the time — we don’t do it on a consistent basis.”

[stillers4me]

Now you know what Hines Ward feels like.

[revefsreleets]

Originally Posted by The Patriot

28 TD's and 10 or so games. What a travesty.

Give him the defensive plays, and he'll double the TD's and almost double the wins...almost.