September 13, 2011

Brady Throws for 517 Yards, 4 Touchdowns: Tom Brady threw for a career and franchise record 517 yards as the New England Patriots defeated the Miami Dolphins 38-24 Monday. He's the eleventh quarterback to throw for 500 yarda and the third quarterback in NFL history to do it with four touchdowns, following Y.A. Tittle and Norm Van Brocklin. Comments by Dolphins pass rusher Cameron Wake before the game: "He's human, right? He has two eyes and red blood? If you cut him, will he bleed? He puts his pants on one leg at a time."

posted by rcade to football at 09:14 AM - 21 comments

I wonder if Cameron Wake was consciously echoing Shakespeare...

I guess I'm more surprised that Brady threw for half a thousand yards and it wasn't more of a blowout.

posted by Bonkers at 09:26 AM on September 13, 2011

He puts his pants on one leg at a time.

Yes, but his pants complete a 12 yard pass to Aaron Hernandez in the process.

posted by Rock Steady at 09:33 AM on September 13, 2011

He puts his pants on one leg at a time

But once he gets those pants on, he breaks records.

posted by Debo270 at 09:42 AM on September 13, 2011

He puts his pants on one leg at a time

And then this happens

posted by kokaku at 10:06 AM on September 13, 2011

I have not seen confirmation of this, but I believe the the 14 300-yard passing games this week may be an NFL record for one week (I remember seeing in November of last year that 13 300-yard passing games in a particular week was a new NFL record). Pretty incredible, and I am sure there is probably some take-away in all of the effect of the lockout on defensive (or defensive back) play or the comparative advantage for offenses from the short offseason.

And while Brady's performance is pretty amazing, Chad Henne put up 416 yards last night. Something's in the air.

posted by holden at 10:10 AM on September 13, 2011

The Henne numbers were indeed head shaking. This whole thing has an old AFL wild west feel to it. QB's must be rubbing their lucky Lamonica statuettes before game time.

But the modicum of charm Gruden once held for me when he first hit the broadcast booth has now officially worn off completely. We need to find him a coaching job.

posted by beaverboard at 10:21 AM on September 13, 2011

Chad Henne put up 416 yards last night. Something's in the air.

Football Outsiders have mentioned a few times that Henne is a different Quarterback with four receivers on the field than he is with two or three and Miami frequently had Marshall, Hartline, Bess, Fasano and Bush out in the pattern.

He looked... solid, I guess. New England's secondary isn't exactly fearsome, but what was mostly missing for Henne was the type of poor decision making we've seen before. He made some bad throws, notably three into the end zone, but he didn't do anything that made me shout "Why!? Why did you throw that?" Which was a popular refrain last season.

Then Miami's defence was dreadful. Wake took some time to work out a rookie left Tackle pressed into service at right Tackle, there was no pass rush from anywhere else and on the whole they looked poorly prepared and poorly conditioned.

Brady used the no huddle extensively and multiple Miami defenders had to take themselves out of the game with cramps, including both corners Vontae Davis and Shaun Smith and Brady will not let you get away with that.

I can see it's possible I'm going to enjoy yet another year of watching Miami be half a football team.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:34 AM on September 13, 2011

Brady was damned close to breaking two other records too...

Most passing yards, game 554, Norm Van Brocklin September 28, 1951

Most passing yards, game, No interceptions 527, Warren Moon December 16, 1990

posted by kokaku at 10:40 AM on September 13, 2011

Henne being the leading rusher for the Dolphins is a bit of a problem.

posted by bperk at 10:50 AM on September 13, 2011

QB's must be rubbing their lucky Lamonica statuettes before game time.

Euphemism at 12 o'clock sharp!

posted by rcade at 11:46 AM on September 13, 2011

Football Outsiders have mentioned a few times that Henne is a different Quarterback with four receivers on the field than he is with two or three

Up here, another point of focus was Miami's new offensive coordinator worked for the Pats for 6 years and was the architect of the throttling the Pats took in Cleveland last year (one of their two losses). Be interesting to see how the Dolphins offense does going forward. I don't think Henne is awful. Then again, I wouldn't pick him for my team either.

posted by yerfatma at 12:11 PM on September 13, 2011

Henne being the leading rusher for the Dolphins is a bit of a problem.

Well, they played from behind starting very early, which had a lot to do with that. Brady torched them for two early scores and was 8/8 for 127 yards. It was pretty clear that if Miami was going to keep up, Henne wasn't going to be handing off very often.

I think Bush as a feature back is a big gamble, but I don't think last night's aerial assault was indicative of what kind of offence Miami would be running if they had control of the game. Brady was nearly historically murdering them through the air and kudos to Henne and the Miami receivers for keeping it close.

Most passing yards, game, No interceptions 527, Warren Moon December 16, 1990

He got picked, though. Fluky, sure, but it happened.

posted by dfleming at 12:33 PM on September 13, 2011

517 yards and 4 TDs, but a lower QB ranking than Ryan Fitzpatrick (17/25, 208 yds, 4 TDs, 0 ints) -- under both traditional QB Rating and ESPN's newfangled stat.

posted by holden at 01:19 PM on September 13, 2011

The good news is FO have Brady's Passing DYAR as 231, (1st), compared to Fitzpatrick's 168, (4th).

posted by Mr Bismarck at 01:32 PM on September 13, 2011

The pick is what kills him in either of those QB ratings. Also, is it possible for ESPN to STFU about QBR for a sec? I love when people who don't understand numbers embrace them without ever bothering to figure out a significance. Hopefully they can bring in a guy who throws bones to predict college football scores.

posted by yerfatma at 01:46 PM on September 13, 2011

The good news is FO have Brady's Passing DYAR as 231, (1st), compared to Fitzpatrick's 168, (4th).

Yeah, I saw that. Brees comes out a lot better in the DYAR than in either of the other rankings as well, moving from 7/8 to 2. The FO rankings are good in that they account for the fact that not all passes and plays are created equal, but the DYAR for the early-season games (until they go back and adjust after getting a sufficient defensive sample) is somewhat compromised in that they are not accounting for the quality of the opposing defense. I am sure Ray Rice's performance, for example, will look better once the strength of the Steelers' defense is taken into account (assuming they play to recent years' form); hard to say on some of the QBs.

Also, is it possible for ESPN to STFU about QBR for a sec?

I love that one of the most commonly pimped benefits/justifications is that if you look back on past years, the top QBs by consensus of the experts are also the QBR leaders. Confirmation bias, anyone?

posted by holden at 01:50 PM on September 13, 2011

Yeah, you have to wait for week six, I think, before the "D" in DYAR, (and DVOA). becomes meaningful.

Of course, last night the only "D" Miami put on the field was the big one in their logo.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 01:56 PM on September 13, 2011

He puts his pants on one leg at a time.

... but after he puts those pants on, he makes gold records>

posted by Joey Michaels at 05:51 PM on September 13, 2011

I guess it's impressive but will it translate into actual playoff wins? Their defense gave up a lot of yards against Chad Henne.

posted by insomnyuk at 07:16 PM on September 13, 2011

It's a fair question, but I think this article in the Globe addresses it well:

Consider: The Patriots, despite sending an extra rusher on only 10 of 53 dropbacks, generated 20 quarterback pressures (sacks, hurries, and knockdowns combined) . . . And the 14 percent third-down conversion rate was no fluke. No matter what the Dolphins did on fourth downs in desperation garbage time.

posted by yerfatma at 08:59 AM on September 14, 2011

Breakout of Miami yardage and first downs

posted by kokaku at 11:08 AM on September 14, 2011

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