Tom Brady was hit 20 times Sunday in the loss to the Broncos Sunday. (Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports)
DENVER — The Patriots scored less than 20 points for just the second time all season in their 20-18 loss to the Broncos in the AFC championship.
A big reason for that was the pressure Tom Brady was under all game. The quarterback was sacked four times and hit a total of 20 times, which was the most on a NFL quarterback in a game this season.
After reviewing the game film and it being about 15 hours after the fact, Bill Belichick said it wasn’t on just one specific player, it was the whole unit and the whole offense in general for the reason why Brady was under so much pressure.
“I’d say it’s a combination of things,” Belichick told reporters back at Gillette Stadium. “I thought Denver did a good job defensively. It’s all inter-connected between the receivers, the quarterback, the offensive line. The timing, execution, balance of the running game, long yardage situations. It’s all part of it. In the end, it wasn’t as good as it needed to be yesterday, period. In any area. I wouldn’t put it on one guy, or one situation, or one position, or anything like that. In the end we came up short.”
The Patriots used Sebastian Vollmer at left tackle, Marcus Cannon at right tackle, Shaq Mason at right guard, Josh Kline at left guard and Bryan Stork at center — all of which played all 83 offensive snaps, according to the NFL gamebook.
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