Jason McCourty sees some in the media attempting this week to stick a fork between the shoulders of Tom Brady.
He wonders where the “Brady’s done!” crew was after Sunday Night Football wins over the Packers and Chiefs.
“Last week, we beat the Packers and put up 30-some points and no one questions him,” McCourty said earlier this week on Quick Slants. “We play the Kansas City Chiefs and as a defense, we suck and we give up a lot of points and Tom just keeps answering. He has the last drive to go down and put us up and the game’s over and it’s just, ‘There’s Tom Brady being Tom Brady.’
“Then as soon as there’s a bad game, it’s like, ‘Well, I guess Tom’s on a downward spiral . . . ’ – wait, two weeks ago, he was still the greatest?
“For me, that just comes with the territory of reaching that level of greatness,” McCourty added. “As soon as there’s a tad bit off everybody goes down in the dumps.”
Caveats are attached to Brady’s good games -- “Sure, he went 24-for-35 for 340 against the Chiefs and dropped a pearl into Gronk’s hands from deep to set up the win, but the Chiefs defense sucks!” -- while the fine print like injuries or protection is ignored when he plays average.
Why’s that? Devin McCourty thinks it’s the rush to be the first to have planted the “Brady’s Done” flag.
New England Patriots
“Everyone wants to call that out,” said Devin. “Everyone wants to be the smart person who said ‘I knew it was the end.’ In ’14, how many people said that?”
Coming off Sunday’s 34-10 loss in Tennessee that dropped the Patriots to 7-3, both McCourty’s said there’s no need for overreaction.
“It doesn’t help,” said Devin.
“For us as players, what is our overreaction?” Jason asked. “What are we gonna do, go to management and say, ‘Get me out of here and replace me with somebody better?’ For us to overreact is pointless.
“We’ll focus on what we messed up and what we can improve on,” Jason added. “Once you form that brotherhood and that family mentality you want to fix things with the guys that are in your locker room. So you try to fix it so that the team and management doesn’t feel like it has to go outside to fix any problems.”
Devin understands the outside reaction that comes after a bad performance.
“When you watch, you can say, ‘They have this problem, that problem,’ but you’re not a part of fixing that,” he said. “You just sit back and if they don’t fix it you boo, if they do fix it, you cheer. We’re all like that. When I watch basketball, I’ll have strong opinions and say what they need to do and it’s the same way.
“What I’ve learned in this league is you have to keep that sense of urgency,” said Devin. “There’s no time to panic but there is a time to have a sense of urgency to get better and that’s how you have good seasons. We’re at a crucial point. But with the sense of urgency you allow yourself a chance. In
’15 we went 10-0 and everything was great, we were the best team and then we (go 2-4 down the stretch) and you’re like, ‘I don’t know what happened, I thought we were great.’ It’s all about keeping a sense of urgency.”
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