“I’d seen these guys on TV and I know how talented these guys are,’’ Galloway said of the Patriots. “My goal is to win and my decision to come here is to win.’’
That opportunity seemed to present itself last Sunday against the Jets at the Meadowlands. How ever, Galloway was unable to seize upon it.
With cornerback Dwight Lowery in tight man-to-man coverage, Galloway failed to reel in Brady’s fourth-and-10 pass from the Patriots’ 28 with 1:06 remaining. New England turned the ball over on downs and the Jets preserved a 16-9 victory.
Galloway’s frustration was evident in the way he slapped the ball to the ground after it had caromed off the turf in front of him.
“I felt like we didn’t play as well as we needed to play to win a game on the road,’’ said Galloway, who was targeted 12 times by Brady, making five catches for 53 yards.
Although his first catch as a Patriot went for a 19-yard gain, it was the catch he didn’t make at the end of the game that seemed to raise questions about whether Brady had ample time during the preseason to build chemistry with the 37-year-old Galloway.
“Some of those balls against the Jets, Tom had to throw way too soon, like the comeback [route] that bounced a few yards short, that was the pass rush,’’ said Trent Dilfer, a former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst. “The stop route early in the game, where it’s one-on-one and it looks like there was some frustration, that was Galloway. He took forever to get off the ball. He did all this dancing at the line and disrupted the timing on the play. You can’t waste time on a stop route. I think that was part of it.
“It’s both their jobs to get the timing right, but it’s probably more on the receiver to do it the way the quarterback wants. If you want to catch the ball, you better do it the way the quarterback wants.’’
