ESPN NFL analyst Tim Hasselbeck, making his final weekly appearance of the season on Dennis & Callahan with Minihane, said Tom Brady made a mistake on the deciding 2-point conversion in Sunday’s 20-18 loss to the Broncos in the AFC championship game. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page.
Hasselbeck said Brady made the wrong read on the Patriots’ final chance to tie, failing to see that Rob Gronkowski was open and instead trying to force the ball into Julian Edelman, who had two defenders around him. He noted that if Peyton Manning made a similar mistake, the hosts would be saying Manning choked.
“It’s a spot route. It’s a 100 percent error by the quarterback on the 2-point play. Not even debatable,” Hasselbeck said: “You flash the corner to the spot. You’re trying to run some traffic to out-leverage the defense. Denver, I think, [messed up], because they end up doubling the flat. That’s the last thing you want to do, is double the flat. But they’re afraid to get out-leveraged so they both run after him. You then have inside leverage, with [Shiloh] Keo on Rob Gronkowski.
“Gronk is the No. 2 guy in the progression. It goes flat, corner, spot. For whatever reason, Brady just skips him. He skips him. It’s an easy throw to Gronkowski and the game is tied. It’s inexcusable at that point.
“Now, listen, I don’t think he choked. I just think that if it were Peyton Manning who had the type of game that Brady had, you guys would be talking about him choking.”
Hasselbeck opined that too much is being made of the pressure on Brady by the Broncos defense. He listed a series of plays in which Brady failed to execute, noting that the Patriots were trying to find a mismatch such as linebacker Danny Trevathan guarding a running back, but when they did, Brady didn’t make good passes.
“That’s what they wanted to go after yesterday, and he missed the throws. He missed them,” Hasselbeck said. “Did he take a beating? Yeah, he took a beating. They couldn’t block Von Miller. Nobody can block Von Miller. They understand all of that stuff coming into the game. The truth is that blame has got to be shared here.”
Hasselbeck said the oft-criticized Manning outplayed Brady, specifically noting that Manning did not turn over the ball while Brady threw a pair of costly interceptions.
“Just because Peyton Manning quarterbacks a team and they lose doesn’t mean it’s a quarterback choke job,” he said. “The truth is, Tom Brady played poorly yesterday. … For the record, I don’t think that Tom Brady choked. But what I’m just saying is that certainly would be the discussion on Peyton Manning if he played that way.”
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