We have truly become prisoners of the moment. Those who give Jay Cutler some special props for winning an NFL game on Monday night against a Patriots team that was very due for a loss are the same crazies suggesting that one bad game in which Tom Brady goes 0-11 in third down conversions without his top two receiving threats is some indication that he may be on the downswing.
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Patriots: 0-11 on 3rd down 1st time failing to convert a 3rd down since going 0-6 in 1991 vs Phoenix Cardinals Tom Brady was 14 years old when that game was played
Our friends Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe of FS1s Undisputed went as far as to discuss the possibility that age is finally catching up with Brady. One minute you are the MVP and the next minute dudes are trying to retire you after one bad game. Thats where we are at right now in sports coverage.
All that being said, despite a game in which Brady completed less than 60 percent of his passes, threw for just 233 yards and had two interceptions, Brady still enters next weekends huge game against the Steelers as the No. 1 passing QB in the NFL with 3,865 yards. And he’s most peoples MVP pick now that Philadelphia Eagles QB Carson Wentz is out for the season.
The Patriots have been running over teams this season and Brady continues to make a mockery of NFL defenses. Things had actually been running too smoothly in New England. Every move head coach Bill Belichick makes, and every player he plugs into his system, finds success. The Pats were bound to have a stinker and if a seven-point loss to a hungry division rival is as bad as it gets, then the Pats are still in great shape at 10-3 heading to 11-2 Pittsburgh next week to fight for AFC supremacy.
That was pretty bad, Brady said of the game. It cant get any worse than that. We just didnt make enough plays. It was just a bad night. The Patriots QB hadnt seen a passer rating that bad since they lost to Denver in the AFC Championship Game in January 2016. Weve had a lot of good nights this year. This was a bad night.
Adding more perspective to Bradys poor performance is the fact that he often struggles against Miami. Brady and the Pats are 7-9 at Hard Rock Stadium.
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Raise your hand if you’re beating the Patriots on Monday Night Football right now…
Cutler’s always been able to fling the pigskin. If hes healthy and can wing it, he will always give his team a chance to win. He’s been known to fumble or flip his team out of games as well, but that goes with the true gunslinger swag he possesses. The man has almost 35,000 career passing yards and hes played in some big games over the years.
He is exactly the kind of talent that could come off the coach at age 34 and put together an 11-game string of starts in which he has thrown 18 TDs and 11 picks to keep the Dolphins in the playoff hunt.
The initial skepticism concerning Cutler’s ability to perform at a high level has quickly turned to a general feeling that he was the perfect QB to lead Miami through what was supposed to be be a throw away season after losing starter Ryan Tannehill to ACL surgery in August.
Sometimes a players effectiveness is overrated and on the flip side, some players arent as bad as the social media mudslide attempts to paint them. Cutler has never won a meaningful playoff game, but on any given Monday night, with the lights on, he can toss three TDs for 263 yards on your squad as he did to Belichick’s boys.
Yup. Brady can suck and Cutler can still play like the guy who threw for 4,526 yards in 2008 and led the NFL in TD passes with 28 in 2014.
