The Broncos gave Tom Brady the worst QB beating of the NFL season
The Broncos hit Tom Brady harder than any quarterback got hit this season.
By
Will Brinson
•
1 min read
The formula to knock off the Patriots is simple: beat up Tom Brady. Simple in the idea, anyway, because the actual execution is difficult.
But the Broncos pulled it off during Sunday's AFC Championship Game victory, spending the entire afternoon in Brady's kitchen, constantly hammering the Pats quarterback with pressure from Derek Wolfe, Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware.
It was obvious to anyone watching the game just how difficult a time Brady had, but the numbers for him are stunning. According to Ben Volin of the Boston Globe, Brady was sacked four times but hit by the Broncos 20 times on Sunday.
More from Volin:
To put that in perspective, it was the most hits taken by any quarterback in any game this NFL season. Brady took 99 hits in his previous 17 games, an average of 5.8 per game. The most he had taken before Sunday was 12 against the Eagles last month. Brady had taken 19 hits in his last four games combined before Sunday.
According to Pro Football Focus, Brady faced pressure on 45 of his 61 dropbacks. That's 73.8 percent of the time -- it's one thing to send pressure it's another thing for the pressure to get home.
Denver's pressure got home all day against a team without a running game.
Brady was forced to pass a ridiculous 56 times on Sunday afternoon, only completing 48.2 percent of those attempts, a testament to how little time in the pocket he had against Denver.
It was as ugly a game as you'll ever see from the Patriots offense and Brady.
