Tom Brady has faced a lot of criticism in his first year as a Fox NFL analyst, in part because he is hesitant to call out poor quarterback play. On Tuesday, however, Brady appeared unconcerned as he pursued Ohio State quarterback Will Howard. Brady, a Michigan Wolverine before going on to win seven Super Bowls in the NFL, was pleased with his former mater’s win.
However, in response to Ohio State’s performance on Saturday, Brady was blunt about the Buckeyes’ quarterback difficulties during an appearance on The Herd with Colin Cowherd, stating that it didn’t matter who was playing wide receiver for the team because Howard couldn’t get the ball.
“Michigan is a very tough, hard-nosed team,” explained Brady. They run the ball quite well. They haven’t been outstanding at tossing the ball. But if I look at Ohio State, they have an excellent 7-on-7 squad. They have people that can chuck the ball as well. However, in the second half, they do not even target their top players. So, to me, it’s as if I were out there playing receiver for Ohio State. I can’t run or catch, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t throw me the ball, just like they didn’t throw many of their finest players the ball in the second half.”
Brady did not throw all of the blame on Howard, however. He went into depth about how Ohio State’s coaching staff failed to establish an environment in which their top players could thrive, something his previous head coach Bill Belichick always tried to do with the New England Patriots.
“When we get to major games, like the Super Bowl, there are 70 plays remaining in the season. The entire 6-7 months of training will come down to 70 plays. What do we want the 70 plays to look like? And then you reverse engineer it and say we’ll need 40 passes and 30 runs. What are the 40 passes we want? We can create 150 of them if you wish. Now, 110 of them will not be called. So, why don’t we just limit it to the ones in which our greatest players will touch the ball and do their best?
We’re going out that way, and if we lose, we lose. If we win, that’s terrific, but we’re not going to lose doing stuff we’re not good at,” Brady added.
It’s impossible to disagree with anything Brady said here. In fact, it would be good to hear Brady share these enlightening stories from the Fox broadcast booth more frequently. Anyone who has heard Brady talk about football knows he knows as much about the game as anyone else. Whether he did a good job transmitting that knowledge to viewers at home from the Fox broadcast booth is another issue, as he himself admits.
Perhaps Brady will develop that expertise with time. But, for the time being, more appearances on The Herd during the rest of the NFL season (which haven’t been as regular as Cowherd predicted) could help his on-air presence.
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