Defense Doesn’t Matter To Brady
January 11th, 2021
Consistent
When Joe was reading this crazy stat, Joe thought of perhaps the greatest stat in baseball and how a news columnist could link his quote to the Bucs quarterback.
Some 60 years ago, a largely forgotten baseball Hall of Famer, Stan Musial (he was one of several who threw out the first pitch at the Rays’ inaugural game in 1998), retired with 1,815 hits at home, 1,815 hits on the road.
Wrote news columnist George Will, who sometimes dabbled in baseball writing, “Musial didn’t care where he was, he just hit.”
That is Brady’s passing.
Bryan Knowles of Football Outsiders shared cool stats on Brady that made Joe think of Will’s quote on Musial.
Brady averaged 8 yards per attempt against zone defenses this year, compared to 7.2 against man-to-man coverage
Amazingly, Brady’s passes through the 16-game regular season against zone defenses and man defenses had but inches of difference. So to paraphrase Will on Musial, Brady doesn’t care what defense you use on him. He just completes passes.
Chris Godwin is the first player with 4 drops in a playoff game since Brian Westbrook against the Saints on Jan. 13, 2007.
Godwin entered the game with 4 drops in his entire career. pic.twitter.com/nOfmJWIfsQ
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) January 10, 2021
Bucs legend Derrick Brooks and Ira Kaufman react to Saturday night’s win on TAMPA TWO.
January 11th, 2021 at 9:21 am
Interesting piece, though the inclusion of the stat line by Godwin is a bit of a non sequitur.
January 11th, 2021 at 9:24 am
I expect Godwin to bounce back (he better).
The weird thing was how all the drops came in the 2nd half… so it’s not like it was playoff jitters or something…
January 11th, 2021 at 9:27 am
I loved how Brady kept going to Godwin. It was like he was saying “Work out the jitters, I know you’re great.”
With Brady playing almost spotless against the #3 defense in the league moving the ball at will, I’d say to our defense live and die by the blitz. Go crazy. If you get burned and let them score 50% of the time, I’ll take my chances with TB12. Go Bucs!!!
January 11th, 2021 at 9:39 am
agree i believe he’ll bounce back….
happy to see brady keep going to him, but i think he kept going to him because his drops didnt cause any INTs….
happy to see mike evans dominate in a playoff game….gotta carry it over….
GO BUCS!!!!
January 11th, 2021 at 9:44 am
Has anyone thought that maybe that pinned finger might be have been bothering him a little? Just saying…out of character.
January 11th, 2021 at 9:48 am
this game reminds me of bucs vs eagles on our SB run….lol…
i really didnt want to face to eagles and thought we had no shot at winning….
this year after 2 Ls, i did not want to face the saints in the playoffs and im still having a hard time seeing/believing we can win this game….lol….
LETS GO BUCS!!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
January 11th, 2021 at 9:53 am
Agreed thisisouryear – he was very aware it was Evans and Godwin’s first playoff game and the worst thing you could do as a QB is kill their confidence by going away from them after a drop or two.
I hope we blitz Brees to kingdom come. Until the Bears offense inability to maintain drives caught up to them, their D had a great first half bringing pressure against him. The offense is rolling so much right now it’ll take care of itself.
Since the SNF 38-3 disaster Brady is averaging nearly 300 YPG and has 22 TD’s to 5 INT’s where we are 6-2 with a pair of three point losses to the Chiefs and Rams.
January 11th, 2021 at 9:59 am
Godwin will not make excuses, though he had some drops, he also scored as well. If you also notice, he was not as aggressive on his blocks either, something was going on…
January 11th, 2021 at 10:04 am
ME manned up, and AB is money. count on those two and let CG earn his way back. it wasn’t the finger… his hands were out of position. he had the jitters. throw him a few and if he catches his confidence will be back. If not…you know what TB does to those who drop balls.
January 11th, 2021 at 10:13 am
One of the worst performances I’ve ever seen at Wr in a playoff game. If this happens again Godwin should be benched
January 11th, 2021 at 10:26 am
WFT!…Oh wait…WTF! Four drops his entire career? That stat can’t be correct.
January 11th, 2021 at 10:41 am
Lamarcus, while I don’t think Godwin should ever be benched I’ll agree that those drops could have cost the Bucs the game and will be co Llewelyn inexcusable if he does it against New Orleans. Two you what AB looks GOOD, and actually he was kinda dominating, a little surprised they didn’t go to him more. If Godwin has so much as one horrible drop I think they need to not F around and roll with AB
January 11th, 2021 at 10:42 am
Dont think Godwin will do that again. Unless that once broken finger is acting up.
January 11th, 2021 at 10:51 am
The reason brees beat us easily is because we git zero pressure on him. Blitz and blitz and blitz. Rough him up. Come on Bowles. Adjust!
January 11th, 2021 at 10:53 am
Welcome to the world of dropped stats. Numbers for dropped stats — for everyone — is all over the map. One guy could have Godwin with eight drops. Another guy three.
“Drops” is not an official NFL stat. So everyone has their own subjective criteria for what is or isn’t a drop. And it shows with the wildly different numbers for dropped stats from site to site, statgeek to statgeek.
January 11th, 2021 at 11:22 am
Took a few games, just like Gronk, but AB is back! He’s sure-handed, gets open, and accelerates. Just sayin, but he and Gronk were horrible in their first 3 games or so. But TB12 knew what they had. The Patriots always had a great running game with Gronk blocking, then, BOOM- big-time, clutch catch. AB can be a game breaker; is now a major problem for defenses…Evans. Godwin, and AB? Yikes! Go ahead and smother them. They’ll either make the catch anyway, or Miller, Brate, or Gronk will.
Time to take one in NO. Go Bucs!
January 11th, 2021 at 11:36 am
I thought the headline meant that the Bucs’ “defense doesn’t matter”…Brady will still lead us to a win, regardless. Funny!
I counted 5 Godwin drops. He should have been taken out. I don’t expect a poor outing from him again.
January 11th, 2021 at 11:43 am
I think one of the issues that the team had were nerves with first playoff game. I think that really effected both the defense and Godwin. I think we will see more of a better flow against the Saints.
January 11th, 2021 at 12:53 pm
I agree on the Godwin blocking, if he blocked on the big run by Fournett he would of scored. As far as drops every receiver has a.bad game. Edleman dropped balls but Brady never bailed on him. Godwin will be fine he is a stud. Let’s not forget Evan’s drops and Brate in end zone. It happens.
January 11th, 2021 at 2:03 pm
We definitely need to blitz and pressure on brees for sure …use the extra tight ends to protect brady…WE NEED AB MORE ….MORE AB PLEASE!!!!!! WE CANNOT HAVE DROPPED BALLS IN THE PLAYOFFS!!!!! AB IS ON FIRE NOW AND HAS EXPIRIENCE AND WILL GET IT DONE….goodwin and ME13 played ok but they need to tighten up …we did a good job with the balanced attack with running we need rojo back also….PLEASE PLAY MAN COVERAGE AGAINST BREES….he will eat up zone all day long….disguise our blitzes also …we did a good job towards the wnd of the game changing it up on blitzes and got through we can beat NO LETS FGO TAMPA BAY ALL THE WAY
January 11th, 2021 at 2:10 pm
8.0 and 7.2 YPA are very different. 8.0 would be 5th in the league between Mahomes and Allen. 7.2 would be tied for 20th in the league. Cam Newton and Jared Goff had 7.2. in other words he was great against the zone and below average against man.
Brady is the GOAT. Not trying to take anything away from him. Just pointing out your stats don’t line up with your conclusion.
January 11th, 2021 at 4:29 pm
The thing about stats is they don’t always tell an accurate story. What percentage of those man coverages were also blitzes? I see Brady throw away a lot of balls on those type of pressures, so I would expect him to have lower stats compared to zone looks, but I’m also sure he had more opportunities for big plays, so it all balances out I would imagine.