Tom Brady Gets 200th Win While Torching Darrelle Revis For Two Touchdowns

“Bra-dy!” at the tail end of a 22-17 loss to Tom Brady’s charges on Sunday, the Jets weren’t just unwilling to put up a fight about it; they were resigned to its inevitability. “Bryce is getting better, he got a lot of experience against the Rams, he’ll get more experience as time goes on, just not right now”.

“I’ve been on the other end of these kinds of games (in Buffalo), watching Brady do this thing”, said Hogan.

“Gronk’s a tough guy, though”, Brady said. His passes repeatedly sailed high over receivers’ heads, perhaps because he could not fully step into his throws.

It looked as if a hobbled Brady – who missed two practices last week due to a knee injury and was listed as questionable on Friday’s injury report – might have to wait for the record-tying win when the usually potent Patriots recorded just three first downs in their first three series.

Including the playoffs, Brady is 200-61 in his career. The Pats defense made Jets QB Ryan Fitzpatrick look downright fantastic on Sunday – he finished 22 of 32 for 269 yards, two touchdowns and a 115.2 QB rating. These plays make the entire difference between a great defensive performance and one worthy of ire. “He has to execute and I have to execute better on my end”. “It was a long week”. “I think I was praying on the field to get another opportunity”. Then they made another play.

It drew a few chuckles – one from me – before mentioning there are other good players, who all work hard, yadda, yadda, yadda. Far more often than he expected, a rookie was testing him.

The problem facing the Patriots is that even if he can play out the remainder of the season, Gronkowski is going to be less than healthy.

Defensive end Chris Long’s game-cinching sack was his first sack since the team’s season opener at Arizona on September 11. Able to throw the ball very well against good teams.

It is thought it was this hit that punctured Gronkowski’s lung. The Patriots running back saw nothing along the right side, so he reversed direction and started heading back around to the left, with the Brady out in front of him.

Brady directed the Patriots to 10 second-quarter points and tied the game with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Mitchell with 6:29 remaining in the half.

Some people keep tossing it all back on Brady — this, another enduring Patriots victory, another vivid Patriots season. A game can end on an offensive penalty.

It would seem that Bowles is safe, at least to get to next season. None of it is devastating, but all of it is concerning for a team with ambitions that stretch well beyond December.

Teams need to experience what it’s like to lose a top player like Gronkowski early in the game, be limited in the personnel packages that can be utilized the rest of the way, and still be resourceful enough to pull through with a quarterback clearly at less than 100 percent. “It really is true – Tom makes us all better”.

But both entered Sunday suffering through miserable seasons.

But if the Patriots really want to be considered Super Bowl favorites, this defense is going to have to do more, especially the pass rush and the secondary. To know how they might approach it, it’s worth listening to how Belichick responded when asked if he ever gave any thought to playing Garoppolo instead of Brady. They are winning close games.