What's up with Tom? (Brady)

 As a devout Tom Brady supporter, it goes without saying that this season has been distressing. The Buccaneers offense has been an absolute travesty, and Brady looks as bad as he has ever been. Unfortunately, I don't think this is just a scheme issue. Brady is clearly worse; while he is taking fewer sacks than ever, his pocket mobility is clearly deteriorating to the point that he struggles to buy time to push the ball downfield. Furthermore, he is certainly missing a lot more throws than he used to, and his arm, while still good, is no longer the absolute cannon that he once had.

However, not all of this is on him. The Buccaneers passing offense is actually 11th in total expected points added per pro football reference, which absolutely shocked me when I looked that up. Their issue is an utterly abysmal run game, one that is somehow the worst on a per rush basis despite also having the fewest rushes in the league. This is truly incomprehensible. The run game is ultimately still on the quarterback to some extent, and Brady's inability to open up the lanes with his deadly passing ability that he used to have is certainly an explanatory variable for all of this nonsense. However, it could also be concluded that a lot of this is more of a scheme/coaching issue.

The "nerds" have often posited that "establishing the run" is not a truly impactful strategy that alters the efficacy of a passing game. I would counter to this, having not actually read the backup to their claims in quite a while, that although it might not be measurably obvious, an effective run game can certainly open up the passing game. Do I have any proof of this? No. However, it is still true. If Brady does go to the 49ers next season, which seems excitingly likely, I would fully expect him to thrive. Of course, I expected him to do much better in Tampa than he has. Sure, he won a ring, and sure, he should have won an MVP, but I was thinking that the Buccaneers offense would be unrivaled. Instead, they were simply elite. Some of this has to do with the fact that Tampa Tom simply wasn't as good of a QB as late career Patriots Tom, but a lot had to do with coaching as well. Byron Leftwich, bless his heart, is not a good offensive coordinator in any form.

I'm not really sure what my point is. Brady is leading the league in attempts by a comical margin, and is still mustering some passable efficiency. The Bucs issue, outside of Tom not being the motherfucker he once was, lies more within the 1.5 yards per carry they're getting from their run game. It's weird to say that a team's issue is their run game (it probably still isn't, it's probably still Tom's fault) but it might just be true. I find it interesting that, whenever it is crunch time, the Buccaneers offense is an unstoppable force. Brady has led at least 100 different game tying TD drives late in the 4th (although they were often punctuated with failed two point conversions that were quite necessary) this year, and the offense always looks deadly when it matters. However, it fucking sucks otherwise, and it confuses me to no end. Whatever. Yet another blog to add to my resume.