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Tom Brady and the definition of greatness 09.18.11 at 10:40 pm ET
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Tom Brady leads the NFL with 940 passing yards. (AP)

Tom Brady leads the NFL with 940 passing yards. (AP)

“I mean, he’s a good football player. Period. Brady is Brady, I’m not going to sit up here and stroke the player, you know? He’s exactly what we thought he was going to be – nothing more, nothing less. That’s Tom Brady.”

- Takeo Spikes

Measuring greatness is a tricky thing. It’s almost impossible to define.

But here’s a pretty good rule of thumb: If a guy completes 31-of-40 passes for 423 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions and it isn’t anything close to a surprise to anyone we’ve officially entered Quarterbacking Greatness.

There is that rarefied air of greatness with quarterbacks (we know the names) and there is something else. And Tom Brady is now at Somewhere Else, Population 1.

In his last 10 regular-season games Brady has thrown 29 TD passes and one interception. We’re spoiled (seven titles in 10 years will do that) but we all understand that isn’t supposed to happen, right? Forty-three touchdowns against five interceptions since the start of the 2010 season? His passer rating in those 10 games? 117.4, 123.1, 158.3, 148.8, 113.4, 110.2, 107.0 (his worst rating came in a game where he had three TD passes and zero INT’s — did I mention Population 1?), 145.6, 121.6 (Miami on Monday) and 135.7 (vs. San Diego on Sunday). Put it another way: This isn’t Luke McCown we’re talking about (McCown had four interceptions in 19 attempts on Sunday, or one fewer than Brady in his last 580 attempts).

Brady was the unanimous MVP last season, and was it ever an easy choice. As great as he was in 2007, you could make the argument that he was better in 2010 (winning 14 games with two undrafted guys at running back, a couple of rookie tight ends and nothing approaching a 2007-level Randy Moss as an option at wide receiver).

And as great as he was in 2010, he has made another leap in 2011.

Brady is the first player in NFL history to follow up a 500-yard passing game with a 400-yard passing game (his 940 yards after two weeks is the most in league history, obviously). Look, Miami is on a collision course with 2-14, so you can write that performance off if you want, but the Chargers led the NFL in total defense last season and held Donovan McNabb to 39 yards passing in Week 1.

By any conservative standard, this was a top 10 defense Brady was readying to face at 4:15 on Sunday. He had the scalpel and scrubs on from the start, leading the Patriots on a 92-yard opening TD drive (he was 6-of-7 for 78 yards and the TD pass to Aaron Hernandez).

Pretty Good Rule of Thumb II: When your quarterback starts a drive at his own one-yard line and you expect him to go 99 yards, we’ve again had a smooth landing in Immortal City. Come on, did anyone expect the Patriots to go three-and-out after the Jerod Mayo goal-line tackle on Mike Tolbert? If you want to see the best player at his position at the absolute peak of his powers, watch that second-quarter 99-yard drive again. Brady completed all six of his passes (to five different receivers). He connected on the short stuff, the deep ball (a 30-yard bullet to Ochocinco), made plays with plenty of time (which to be fair has been almost the norm to this point in 2011) and with pressure (see the TD pass to Rob Gronkowski).

“The sky is the limit,” said Deion Branch (eight catches, 129 yards) when asked how the work of Brady over the first two weeks of the season. “Tom puts us up for the challenge in practice, so the expectation is what’s going on the football field during the game.”

We all know that Brady is at the point of his career (and place in history) where he will only be judged by how many more Super Bowls he wins. All that separates him from Joe Montana is one Lombardi Trophy. What we’ve seen so far this season is awe-inspiring (sorry, Tedy — I’ll get into my playbook right after this is done) but he could throw for 7,520 yards and 56 TD’s this season (his current pace) and it really won’t mean much if it ends the way the last two seasons concluded. We get that, and so does Brady — that’s life on Mt. Rushmore.

But when it comes to 2011, all we have are two games, 940 yards passing and seven touchdown passes. The greatest two-game stretch of quarterbacking in NFL history.

Turns out that wasn’t so hard to define.

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  • Lorne O’Neill

    I think this is the year that Brady finally establishes himself as a categorically, definitively superior QG to Peyton Manning. Also, Brady recently said he wants to play ten more years… if he can do this at a high level, there’s really no reason he can’t win another two, three, or four superbowls.

    I do think that upon retiring, Brady will go down as more or less equal to Montana at absolute worst. And when that’s absolute worst, you’re doing something indescribably right.

  • dedra
  • Chard deNiord

    What’s with Boomer Esiason’s thinking that Drew Brees is the best quarter back since 2006, then not even mentioning Brady as a close second or third or fourth? Sour grapes?

  • B.

    haha while i dont disagree with this article, i feel that there is an article titled this every single year. “Has Brady ever been Better?”. Brady is just in a class of his own. Absolutely picks apart defenses.

  • Michael

    amidst all this Brady love has anyone else noticed the Pats D has given up almost 800 yards passing for two games? That’s gotta turn around, all O and no D won’t get us another SB victory.

  • Bill Sullivan

    Marino had a number of great games in September. If the Pats defense doesn’t get much better before December, Brady will never get that last elusive Super Bowl, and Belichek will be on the verge of becoming Don Shula–a great coach who won Super Bowls early in his tenure never to get back on top despite a Hall-of-Fame Quarterback…

  • http://Enteryourwebsite... Tom longmule

    They will win the superbowl this year…..That’s it.

  • James

    I got a chance to see that “interception” against Miami again…the more I look at it, I really think it should have been pass interference- as the receiver was hit before the ball got there. That’s why the ball hit off his shoulder instead of hitting him in the hands.

  • Same as last year

    Imagine what his numbers would look like if he played against his own defense…

  • B.

    James – the receiver was behind or at the line of scrimmage, so the contact there was fine. Branch should have had the block, he screwed up on that one combined with the defender reading it perfectly.

    and i will say that I would like to see the D get stouter and not give up so many yards. but i think everyone needs to calm down a little and consider its week 2 and they have some injuries. You know who is worse then the Pats in passing yards given up? the defending champ Packers. and also in the bottom 10 are the ravens and falcons. its so early.

  • terry zirtidis

    We are the envy of sportsmania usa 7 title in 10 years 9 finals in 10 years and super stars in our new england that people hate espesially BOSTON Larry, Bobby Orr, Bill Russel, Havlicheck, Yaz, Clemens, Martinez, Lynn, Rice, Espo, Bourque,Brady, Garnett, Pierce, what else can one say and iam sure i missed some more from the Pats, Show me what u got America New York w 2 teams in each sports well????? can u much this RAT TOWN

  • Dan (aka NYPatsFan)

    Kirk, great article. I couldn’t have said it any better myself. One play that sticks out in my mind that people seem to have already forgotten however was Brady’s play that he made with about 3:12 left in the 2nd quarter. I think that play alone clearly shows (as if it had not been shown already) that Brady has come all the way back to the form and poise, before the knee injury, that we’re used to seeing from him when the pocket starts to collapse and guys are just a toothpick’s length away from grabbing his jersey. He’s got just enough pocket mobility and awareness, along with that poise and presence, to side step and create enough room to get the pass off. It’s something he’s seemingly had since he took over the quarterbacking reins from Drew Bledsoe. But not only has he returned to form, what we’ve seen from Brady is that he seems to get better each year, which truly shows how hard he works and prepares. Although last season was disappointing, and the expectations for Brady & the Pats will always be high, I won’t forget how he seemingly dominated every top 10 defense he had to face (check out the QB ratings). I think Peter King said it best today:
    “Think about this: A week ago this morning, Tom Brady was a walk-in Hall of Famer if he never played another snap. And in the next six days, he went out and had two of the most explosive offensive days of his career.” Is your mind blown yet, Kirk?

  • Biz

    75-100 years from now after Tom Brady retires, people will remember Joe Montana as Tom Brady lite. The clear cut ONLY runner up to Brady. 12 before 16 then everyone else. That’s how it will be remembered.

  • Largebill

    He’s great, but come on. He’s no Otto Graham. First ten years in pro football (after a little military service for WWII) he leads his team to 10 straight championship games – winning seven! Also, found time to play one season of pro basketball winning a championship that season as well.

  • KidJesus

    Great article. On that play against San Diego when he was hit in the knee, I screamed as soon as I saw him go down and the ball floated. Thank god for that knee brace!

  • KidJesus

    To Largebill:

    You have to be kidding right? He played in the 50′s. No modern offenses…no exotic defenses…12 game seasons and 13 teams in the whole league! You may want to reconsider that statement…

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