Not his very best, but QB earns ‘A’

Bob Ryan

November 28, 2011|By Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist

Tom Bradys arm did most of the damage, but he showed he can still run some,… (Barry Chin/Globe Staff )

PHILADELPHIA - Of course, we’ve seen Tom Brady do this before. That’s the point.

Any pro athlete can have a good day. What separates the average from the good, and the good from the great, is having good games - plural - day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, and even decade after decade.

Was this one of Brady’s transcendent days? No. Was this one of Brady’s great days? No. But was this one of Brady’s countless good-to-very good days, a day the average quarterback would trade a few precious possessions in order to have this performance identified as one of his own? Yes, and that’s the point. It was Tom Brady being Tom Brady, and that generally means the Patriots have won the football game.

It’s news when Brady has an off day. It’s news, and we start to wonder if there’s something wrong with him. And then he dissects an opposing defense as he did at Lincoln Financial Field in yesterday’s casual 38-20 destruction of the shockingly inept Eagles and it reminds us yet again how amazingly fortunate the team has been to have him taking those snaps for the past 11 years.

“I thought it was OK,’’ said Brady with a shrug. “I thought we executed a little better. It was good to get one on the road and getting down 10-0 and rallying, which we did. It showed some mental toughness.’’

I may be guilty of burying the lead here, so here are the Brady numbers: 24 of 34, 361 yards, three touchdowns and, for what it’s worth, a passer rating of 134.6. It was a nice day’s work, but I’m telling you, he’s done better, as he would be the first to tell you.

Hardly a game goes by that Brady doesn’t lament “leaving points on the field,’’ and this one was no exception. What particularly irked him was failing to get a touchdown on an end-of-the-half drive that resulted in a 45-yard Stephen Gostkowski field goal. He’s got nothing against his kicker, but it really frosts him when he has to concede defeat, if you will, by having to trot off the field so Gostkowski can trot on. He even made a fuss, and that’s not unusual, either.

“That’s Tom,’’ said receiver Wes Welker. “We want to score a touchdown every time we step on the field. I had a drop. It’s inexcusable to move down the field like that and not score. But I’d rather he’d be that way, than saying, ‘Aw shucks,’ or anything like that.’’