Fortunately, I don't need those numbers to lay it out there. Not only is he leading the NFL in passing yardage through two weeks (940), that's the most ever thrown for in the first two weeks of a season. In 92 seasons of NFL football. He's also league-leader in QB rating (128.0) and completions (63), tied for the lead in touchdown passes (7), and mere percentage points behind Matt Stump the Shcaub in completion percentage (71.7 vs. 71.6).
Coming into this season, Tom Brady had not once, not even in the storybook record-book 2007 season, topped 400 yards passing in a game. He's now done it in back-to-back weeks.
Brady's 940 yards through two games have him on pace to throw for 7,520 yards this season. Or, 2,436 more yards than the current NFL record of 5,084 held by Dan Marino. Is it realistic to think Brady will throw for 7,000 yards? Probably not. Is it realistic to think that Brady can not only break Marino's record this season, but break it substantially? Very much so.
Of the 940 yards accumulated so far by no. 12, just 59 of them have gone in the direction of prized off-season acquisition Chad Ochocinco, off of 3 catches. Way too early to write off the artist formerly known as Chad Johnson. But will it even matter if he ever gets going?
Wes Welker and Deion Branch have each caught 15 balls apiece, totaling 241 and 222 yards, respectively. The 15 receptions through two weeks are good enough for a tie for third in the NFL. Curiously, San Diego back Mike Tolbert is the league leader in receptions, with 17. That puts him on a tidy pace for 136 on the season, which would be good enough for second on the all-time list. But I digress.
After two games, the Pats have dropped 38 and 35 points on the Dolphins and Chargers. That puts them on a pace for 584 points on the season.....just 5 less than the NFL record 589 set by, you guessed it, the 2007 Patriots.
And what's a major difference between the 2011 lineup from the 2007 edition? Production from the tight ends.
Said tight ends have not only shown no sign of a sophomore slump, but in fact, have been even better so far in their second season. The duo of Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski have combined for 24 catches, 337 receiving yards, as well as collecting 5 of Tom Brady's 7 touchdown passes. Word's leaking in this afternoon that Hernandez may miss a week or two with a sprained MCL, but this shouldn't have any negative effects on the offense. In fact, hopefully it means 85 gets more involved.
This takes us back to the 2007 angle. While Welker in particular, along with Jabar Gaffney and Dont'e Stallworth were essential in creating the juggernaut, make no mistake about it, that receiving corps clicked based off of one man, and one man only: Randy Moss. It's safe to say that too many comparisons between Ocho and Rand University were made prior to the season. People expected Chad to waltz right on in here, catch not 23 but 24 touchdown passes and in the process rack up 1,500 yards receiving and about 100 catches, give or take.
Newsflash: Chad Ochocinco is not Randy Moss. Not even in the same stratosphere. Galaxy, maybe. But if you're ranking the wide receivers of the past decade, it goes Moss/Owens in no particular order, followed by a slew of others including, for sure, Ocho. But he never was on the same level as Randy Moss, and it's safe to say at this point he never will be.
That being said.....isn't a receiving corps consisting of a modified Ochocinco, Welker, Branch (lightyears more reliable than Gaffney or Stallworth), and the tight end tandem even more scintillating than the Moss, Welker......Gaffney/Stallworth/Ben Watson groupd?
And we haven't even mentioned the differences in the running game yet, but all you need to know is that Laurence Maroney was on that 2007 team, and he isn't on this one.
Tying everything together, all I'm stating is that I think this 2011 offense is not only more well-balanced than in 2007, it's straight up better. Tom Brady himself is better, which is scary in of itself. I didn't mention the defense at all today, and that unit has been a tad concerning so far, but there's so many new pieces on that side of the ball that it'll take time for it to gel. Hopefully it's not a matter of if, but a matter of when it does indeed gel.
Bottom line: this team shouldn't be aspiring to go 19-0. It should be aspiring to win Super Bowl XLVI. Yet with the way things have looked through two weeks, it's hard not to think about the chances of both.
No comments:
Post a Comment