The Patriots keep thinking it's a good idea to throw to 41-year-old Tom Brady
Tom Brady is a lot of things, but he’s not a guy you want to throw the ball to.
The New England Patriots apparently didn’t learn that lesson in last season’s Super Bowl, when a trick pass went just beyond the reach of Brady’s hands. Brady is 41 now, and still isn’t a nimble receiver.
On Sunday against the Tennessee Titans, the Patriots dialed up another pass to Brady. Because Brady is a senior citizen in NFL years, nobody is going to cover him on a possible pass route, and he was open for Julian Edelman’s trick pass. Brady caught this one, then turned and basically tripped all over himself. It was a third-and-7, and since Brady was stumbling and couldn’t get his feet set, he was stopped a yard short of the first down (and he got hit pretty hard too, which also seems like a bad idea). On the ensuing fourth down, with the Patriots trailing 27-10, New England took a false start penalty and then Brady threw incomplete.
To make matters worse, the Titans then ran a trick play pass to their athletic, young quarterback Marcus Mariota for 21 yards. Perhaps Titans coach and former Patriots coach Mike Vrabel decided to dial that one up after the Patriots’ failed attempt. The Titans went on to beat the Patriots 34-10, and Brady took a seat with about six minutes left and the game out of hand.
Brady had two career receptions before Sunday, a 23-yarder in 2001 and a 36-yard catch in 2015. But now that Brady is in his 40s, maybe the Patriots should take those plays out of the playbook.
More from Yahoo Sports:
• Entire teams penalized after wild college football brawl
• Report: Rockets mulling Carmelo’s status
• Davidson loses despite record 789 rushing yards
• Kevin Iole: Is Yair Rodriguez’s KO the greatest ever?
– – – – – – –
Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Follow @YahooSchwab
Subscribe to The Yahoo Sports NFL Podcast
Apple Podcasts• Stitcher • Google Podcasts
