Pats vs. Dolphins: Week 17

Yesterday's Patriots-Dolphins game was just the latest laugher of a game for New England. I was fortunate enough to attend the game in person, and despite the absences of Wes Welker, Deion Branch, Aaron Hernandez, and Dan Connolly, the Patriots still rolled to a 38-7 victory over the hapless Fish. This marks the fourth finish of 14-2 or better of the Brady/Belichick era, and of the previous three occurrences all have netted Super Bowl berths.

Since a humbling 34-14 loss in Week 9 to the Cleveland Browns, the Patriots have won 8 in a row, their longest such regular-season streak since winning 20 in a row from December 2006-September 2008.  During said stretch, the Patriots have beaten their opponents by an average of nearly 22 points per game. The offense has put up over 37 points per game during the streak, harkening back memories of the prolific 2007 unit that put up 589 points. 

Can it be said that Tom Brady is even better this season than his historic 2007 campaign? On the surface, you can look at his passing yards and touchdown pass totals, and see significant drop-offs in both. 4,806 against 3,900 yards, 50 touchdown passes against 36. His completion percentage was down a tad as well, three whole points from 68.9 to 65.9.

Yet there is no doubt in my mind that I'll take the Tom Brady of 2010 over the Tom Brady of 2007 without thinking twice. And oddly enough, the reason is Randy Moss. I was a major opponent of the Moss trade at first, failing to see how an offense could possibly get better after trading one of the top 10 receivers of all-time. I ignored all the cliches such as "it'll be back like the old days, Tom's go-to guy being whoever is open!" and just thought to myself: I don't care how you slice it down, we just got rid of Randy freakin' Moss.

But you know what? That cliche couldn't have been more accurate. In 2007, Brady targeted only seven of his receivers 10 or more times. This season, he increased the toal to twelve, truly "spreading the ball around". While Wes Welker was no doubt the premier receiver of the group, Brady's secondary options were interchangable all year long. Between Branch, Hernandez, and Rob Gronkowski, the trio finished with 48, 45, and 42 receptions, respectively. Compare that to 2007, where after the Moss/Welker tandem, the drop-off to Brady's no. 3 target was an astounding 51 catches (Welker with 112, Moss with 98, Kevin Faulk with 47). In other words, the offense had become almost too predictable by the end of the year, hence the lack of blowouts by year's end and the ultimate defeat at the hands of the Giants in Super Bowl XLII.

Sans Moss, Brady feels no pressure to force the ball into double or triple coverages, and everyone amongst the receiving corps seems to know their place. And Brady has become an even better quarterback as a result. Not to take anything away from that historic 2007, though. It looks as though there will be a similarity between the two seasons for Brady:  he will be the league's MVP.  Tom all but locked it up yesterday but extending his record of passes thrown without an interceptioin, as well as streak of  2 TD/0 INT games.

A few more thoughts on yesterday's game:

-Where was that all season, Julian Edelman? Hard as it is to fathom, Randy Moss had more catches in a Patriots uniform this year (9) than Edelman (7). Yesterday's three grabs were his first since Week 3 against Buffalo, but boy did he look good in the process. 72 yards, including a long 40 yard screen-pass where he did an outstanding job of following his blocks down the field. And then there was his Patriots-record 94 yard punt return....

-It figures that the one year the no. 1 and no. 2 overall picks in the draft aren't busts, the Patriots have two later selections that can very easily lay claim to Offensive and Defensive rookies of the year. TE Rob Gronkowski yesterday became the first rookie tight end since Mike Ditka to have 10 touchdown catches in a single sesason. He finished with 6 catches over all for 102 yards for his first career 100 yard day. Meanwhile, CB Devin McCourty continues to prove everyone wrong (myself included) that Belichick made a mistake trading down to take him in round 1 while Dez Bryant, among others, were still on the board. The shutdown corner notched his 7th pick of the year yesterday, basically stealing the ball out of Miami's Brandon Marshall's hands. Look for lots of Revis-esque hype to surround McCourty this off-season. That's not a bad thing, right?

-Congrats, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, on becoming the first Patriots running back since Corey Dillon in 2004 to compile a 1,000 yard rushing campaign. At the beginning of the season, whod've guessed that anyone on the Patriots roster would surpass 1,000 yards rushing?

-Get well, Danny Woodhead. The little guy suffered an undisclosed head injury in the 1st quarter and did not return, although that can likely be attributed to the lack of significance of the game. On a side note, one of the highlights of the game had to have been a Patriots fan wearing a Woodhead jersey with a block of wood on his head. This could be going mainstream.



Revis Island McCourty Island?



With the Colts victory and Chiefs loss yesterday, either Kansas City, Baltimore, or the J-E-T-S will be making their way to Foxboro in two weeks in the Divisional round of the playoffs. Check back later this week for a look at the Wild-Card round.