There wasn't much to like in Sunday's dominating 30-7 win over the Vikings, but ever the perfectionist, 37-year-old Tom Brady wasn't completely pleased with the performance. A week ago, in the season-opening loss to the Dolphins, sacks and poor offensive line play were issues, but in Minnesota Brady pointed to something that's much easier to remedy.
“The penalties, they just kill drives,” the quarterback said during his weekly appearance on Boston's WEEI. “We don’t want to be one of the most penalized teams in the league. That would be a real great recipe for how to lose a game.
“Turnovers, penalties, missed opportunities, and we have to do a better job with the penalties," he said. "Obviously not turning the ball over on the road was good. The defense made all those big plays, which allows us a lot of short fields and more opportunities than we really took advantage of. We just need to score more points, and when we have opportunities to get the ball in the end zone, we have to do it. When we have to convert short yardage, we have to do it.”
Scoring more points means involving more people, something Brady wasn't able to do on Sunday. He finished 15 of 22 for 149 yards -- the defense, along with Steven Ridley and his 101 rushing yards, did the heavy lifting -- with Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski accounting for 10 receptions. Put another way: Danny Amendola, Aaron Dobson and Brian LaFell need to pick it up.
“We just have to find ways to get everybody the ball and spread it around to different guys,” Brady conceded. “We spread it around a bit yesterday, but [Amendola] did not get the ball as much as I would like to get it to him.
“Brandon LaFell -- the same thing. Aaron Dobson had one catch to start the game and didn’t get a lot of other looks after that. We have to get the ball to everybody and spread it around to everybody. Those guys are all good with the ball in their hands, so we have to find ways to do a better job of finding everybody, and that’s what makes an offense tough to defend is when you spread it around to everybody.”
Ultimately, Brady knows he's responsible for getting everyone involved, a role he not only takes seriously but embraces.
"But that is my job to find those guys and find ways to get those guys the ball," he said. "They are good in space, they have good quickness, good hands. And if we just keep working hard in practice, then eventually it shows up in the game, and in the games we have to do a better job executing.”
