Tom Brady Quarterback Sneak is Money in the Bank

Tom Brady is more than likely either carrying your entire fantasy football team or ruining everyone in your league’s season on a weekly basis, and Brady picked up right where he left off in Week 5’s “contest” against the Dallas Cowboys.

The Hate Me Now tour rolled through Jerry’s World and embarrassed America’s Team by a final score of 30-6, which no doubt left Jerry Jones and the Cowboys feeling “just about as low as a crippled cricket’s ass” on Sunday.

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This year, Brady has thrown for 1,387 yards, 11 touchdowns, no interceptions, and an overall quarterback rating of 121.5. He has more passing touchdowns than any quarterback this year not named Carson Palmer or Aaron Rodgers, despite having only played in four games due to the Patriots drawing an early bye in Week 3.

So which of Tom Brady’s secret weapons did the Boston Herald refer to as “…a true marvel of efficiency unseen in any sport” and “the most unstoppable play” in all of football?

Hint: it wasn’t a Rob Gronkowski seam route, or a Julian Edelman ankle-breaking whip route like the one he deployed for the game-winning touchdown in the Super Bowl. It wasn’t even a six-man offensive line with LeGarrette Blount lowering his pads behind them.

Actually, it’s something that more often than not something that fools all of us, because Tom Brady disappears for anywhere between one and five seconds.

The most unstoppable play in all of football is the short-yardage Tom Brady quarterback sneak.

Herald columnist Kerry Byrne, who also runs the drool-worthy stat nerd’s paradise Cold Hard Football Facts, lays it out like this: when the Patriots need 2 yards or less and are facing third or fourth down, Tom Brady has converted 109 or 119 rushing attempts in his career. Or, if you prefer, he’s converted 91.6% of his short-yardage rushing attempts.

In 2015, Byrne notes, he’s already 5 for 5, and that’s Brady playing behind an offensive line that’s started three different rookies at center and guard (David Andrews, Tre’ Jackson, and Shaq Mason). One of these was the first touchdown New England scored against the Cowboys after Brady spent most of the first half on his back, compliments of Dallas’s underrated pass rush.

Oct 11, 2015; Arlington, TX, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) scores a touch down against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports

Byrne’s overall point is also worth a look: while the Brady quarterback sneak’s ruthlessly effective, the Patriots have also have led the NFL in rushing touchdowns (240), games with two or more rushing touchdowns (70) and postseason rushing touchdowns (29) since…wait for it…2001.

Since 2001, New England has the fifth-most rush attempts in the league, and coincidentally, the fifth-most pass attempts as well. That’s impressive enough in and of itself, but New England’s perpetual lack of a “feature back” since Corey Dillon in the early 2000s makes the effectiveness of the Patriots run game borderline shocking.

With a ground game like that to go with one of the game’s best quarterback, where could that come in handy?

Next stop: the Snitches Get Stitches Bowl.

Next: Five Stars from Patriots vs. Cowboys

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