Brady Playing His Best Ball As A Quadragenarian, But He's Not Doing It All By Himself

Clearly, Tom Brady has escorted all of us in to the surreal.

The New England Patriots' quarterback continued his Old Geezer Tour by not only throwing for four touchdowns, nor just leading his team to their seventh-straight victory, but is doing so playing perhaps the best football of his career, delivering a standard-brand, workman-like thrashing of his old rival Miami Dolphins on Sunday afternoon...

...in fact, the 35-17 victory at Gillette Stadium was unremarkable with the exception of the fact that for the first time in Brady's 17 seasons at the helm, the Patriots' offense is truly balanced - but not balanced in the way that one would logically expect, because in New England, balance on offense means something different than it does elsewhere.

Traditionally, balance on offense in football is measured by the difference between running plays and passing plays, and in that respect, the New England Patriots could be considered anything but balanced, as they are decidedly pass heavy - but to understand the Patriot Way as it refers to roster building and game planning, all one has to do is look at the way Brady and his cohorts undressed the Dolphins' defense.

The Patriots ran sixty-six plays on offense against Miami, totaling 423 yards of offensive production - with the backs accounting for 33 carries and six targets in the passing game, ending the day with sixty percent of the total touches and 181 yards between them, accounting for 43% of New England's total offense and two touchdowns...

...receiver Brandin Cooks and tight end Rob Gronkowski accounting the majority of the rest along with three of the scores - Gronkowski hauling in two short scoring passes in the left flat and Cooks taking a shuffle pass that looked more like a jet sweep and following the massive man-child into the end zone - not bad considering that names such as Edelman and, more recently, Hogan have been on the shelf.

And, why not? After all, the Patriots' offense is lead by the greatest quarterback that ever lived, who is enjoying a supporting cast of pass catchers that buys into the concept-based offense that requires them to run whatever route necessary from whatever position along the line of scrimmage - and that doesn't just apply to wide receivers, as the tight end depth chart and stable of running backs are held to the same standard.

The result is what we've been witnessing since Halloween, and that should be scaring the rest of the National Football League in a way that zombies, vampires and unicorns can't.

The balance that the Patriots are enjoying comes in the form of total touches. This season, the Patriots have run 743 plays on offense, and when breaking those down between designated receivers, tight ends and backs, the numbers confirm the tremendous balance that Brady is succeeding with.

Of those 743 plays, the Patriots' running backs have handled the ball on 412 of those snaps, which is a full 56%. The tight ends have handled the rock 105 times (14%), which leaves a meager 30% of the offensive snaps actually targeting the wide receivers. Of course, the total yardage is skewed as the backs are not going to be picking up yardage at the pace the speedy wideouts are going to...

...but thanks to the efforts of Dion Lewis and Rex Burkhead, the actual running game is now averaging a potent 4.1 yards per carry, which means that Brady can more forcefully sell the play action, which, in theory, gives him more time in the pocket to go through his progressions without being stomped like a grape.

Which happened against Miami anyway, as Brady took several nasty shots as he was releasing the ball, mostly because the Dolphins' pass rushers took advantage of backups playing at center and at right tackle, but as he dropped back to pass just 28 times - completing eighteen for 227 yards and four scores - they were able to limit the amount of abuse he was subjected to.

Contrarily, the left side of the offensive line has really stepped things up with Nate Solder and Joe Thuney limiting the pressure to Brady's blind side to just two hurries. After missing two weeks with altitude-related flu-like symptoms, regular center David Andrews is due back against Buffalo, leaving only the right tackle spot manned by depth.

And that's important to remember going forward. The quadragenarian is on the cusp on uncharted territory, and his vow to play until he's 45 would be a lot more tangible were he to not take beatings like the one he took on Sunday, even in moderation. That's where the Patriots' adaptation of balance comes into focus.

Brady is playing the best ball of his career in large part to head ball coach Bill Belichick surrounding him with the best, most diverse set of weapons he's had in his career, providing the best balance he's had to work with and behind a line that has taken a while to gel, but has surrendered "only" eleven sacks during the seven-game winning streak - a stark contrast to the 13 they gave up in the first four games of the season.

It also helps if the offense gets off to a fast start and plays with the lead.

During their current seven-game winning streak, the Patriots have scored first in five of those contests - not surprisingly, the ones they didn't pull the early lead in against New York and the Los Angeles Chargers were games that they struggled in - and have not trailed in a game since the Chargers took a seven-point lead on them in the first quarter of a game played a month ago.

Do the math, and you will find that New England has not trailed in a game in what amounts to 225 minutes and counting - which means that the since New England came off of their week nine bye, they have posted three consecutive blowouts, outscoring the Broncos, Raiders and Dolphins by a combined 109-41, and 65-19 in the first half.

Of course, not all of that came from the effort of the offense, as the Patriots' defense has also figured into the balance equation by not only holding teams to just 12 points per game during their winning streak, but in doing so in tandem with superior special teams play that satisfies Belichick's insistence on complementary football.

But that is for another piece at another time.

Right now, we are celebrating the fact that Brady has broken a record that has been held since Warren Moon threw for 25 touchdowns in 1997, and equaled by Brett Favre in 2009, his 26 touchdown passes the most ever thrown by a 40 year old quarterback - a number that is sure to grow since the scoring strikes by Moon and Favre came in full 16-game seasons, while Brady has five games yet to play...

...and while that record is merely an incident of incongruous juxtapositions among a very limited field of athletes, it nevertheless conjures yet another example of why Brady is the greatest quarterback that ever played the game, and has now become the gold standard of passers playing into their forties.

Brady is at the point in his career that he is going to be breaking records virtually every time that he takes a snap from center - lost in all of this, however, is that it takes skill of the players surrounding him to do their jobs and a constant array of individual game-planning to put Brady in position to do all of these wonderful things.

It is a team effort, after all, and football is a team game. There is zero doubt, however, even among his most ardent critics that Brady is the greatest of all time and that the Patriots likely would not have enjoyed their current dynastic run of success were he not under center - so that wisdom cuts both ways.

Let's just say that Brady and his teammates play complementary football, and leave it at that.