Can it happen? Of course.
Seems odd to me to worry more about something that rarely happens (Brady sucking back to back) versus something with a track record (Bell and Brown are really fucking good).
Mixed bag. Finished 13 in rushing yards allowed, 21st in rushing TDs allowed. Steelers held Cleveland to 33 yards in week 11. Ajayi ran for over 200 yards in the regular season game. Had 5 games (WASH, CIN, BAL, CLE, NYG) where they allowed 60 or less yards and 5 games where they allowed more than 125 yards (PHI, MIA, NE, DAL, CLE). Seems pretty middle of the road to me, not as good as they historically have been, but not the bottom of the barrel.
I'll be surprised if Steelers blitz as much as that article speculates--Brady has historically done great against the blitz in general and Pittsburgh's in particular and unlike the LeBeau teams (who were really built and reliant on the frequent blitz) Butler's defenses have been more balanced. I expect them to sit back and try to clog lanes and blitz by exception hoping to fool him the few times they do.
You're correct in that Brady gets rattled by the rush at points. But that only works if there are press corners that can disrupt route timing. A team needs both to be at a high level to slow down the offense. Take a look at the Denver AFCCG losses and the 2010 Jets playoff loss.
I'm surprised he doesn't get the Bettman treatment and just hear loud boos everywhere. Plus, he fined the Falcons (ridiculously lightly) recently, too.
I didn't say he's oblivious to the fact - only surmising that he doesn't understand how deep and long it runs.
On the other hand, it may be a good idea to send a few cornerback blitzes (those not covering Brown) around the edge on early downs to try to catch Bell from behind.
To be fair, once Hill is beyond that safety, I think he's out of Smith's throwing range
http://itiswhatitis.weei.com/sports/newengland/football/patriots/2017/01/17/colin-cowherd-offers-most-insane-tom-brady-take-yet/
#91 Jaime Collins absolutely loses Bell on this play. Luckily the front four did their job.
But then who would they start at qb after they trade Garoppolo to the Chiefs for Kelce, Berry, Powe and a 1st round pick (Cowherd actually suggested this yesterday as a good move for the CHIEFS)
Absolutely. That's a big part of it. But that has to be a factor in the conversation, right? Again, to say that nobody should be concerned about Brady just isn't paying attention to his playoff history. He's the greatest of all time, but he's put up a high percentage of bad games in the playoffs (maybe not more than other QBs, but still). It's not just a "what the heck was THAT?" kind of thing. It's fairly....common, actually. Much more common than we'd like.
I guess it's semantics. I wouldn't classify last year's AFCCG as a "bad" Brady game. The result was bad, but that's because he was being terrorized on the field all game long. IIRC several Broncos players were marveling at his toughness after the game. And the last drive was one of the more impressive Brady drives I can remember, failed 2PC be damned. A "bad" game is lots of unforced errors, and this happens rarely enough that I don't worry about it.
Agreed. And again, it's not like Brady having a bad game is necessary a doomsday scenario for the Patriots. They're 8-5 in playoff games when he has a sub 80.0 passer rating. That's pretty amazing.
Yeah but many of the more recent "poor" games have been much more the fault of some combination of poor offensive line play and/or going against good to historically great defenses
Sure. There are always reasons for a bad game. I mean, last week he had at least a half-dozen throwaways and one of his INTs was a ball that went through Floyd's hands. It happens.
