Tom Brady and Ben Watson have a long-standing connection. The quarterback and tight end first linked up on Sept. 9, 2004. They’re still at it.
During the New England Patriots’ Week 11 win over the Philadelphia Eagles, Brady and Watson connected for the quarterback’s prettiest throw of the night. And unfortunately for Brady, he didn’t have many.
On a second-and-12 from the 23-yard line in the second quarter, New England lined up in 22 personnel (2 TEs, 2 RB, 1 WR) with both tight ends Matt LaCosse and Watson on the right side of the formation. They were bunched with running back Brandon Bolden, who was basically set up as a wing back. The funky formation looked a little like the grouping of three wideouts know as “Trips-Bunch.” It applied the same concept: create a crowd at the line of scrimmage to create separation down the field.
And it worked — sort of. Watson managed to get enough separation for Brady to find a window for a completion. But it was an impressive display of ball-placement. With Watson running up the seam, just a stride ahead of Eagles cornerback Avonte Maddox, Brady fired the ball toward the middle of the field, which forced Watson to go to the ground to make the catch. That’s likely by Brady’s design. He threw the ball to the inside to avoid the defender in-tow, and underthrew the ball to make sure Watson didn’t get absolutely hammered by safety Rodney McLeod, who was coming in to defend the pass from over the top.
The result? A beautiful 19-yard pitch-and-catch that put the Patriots on the 4-yard line.
“[Rex] Burkhead went in motion, and again,” Bill Belichick asked on the conference call on Monday. “It looked like there was a little bit of a (miscommunication) – the Eagles had to kind of slide over and adjust to that. And when the linebacker went inside to take LaCosse, then Ben was able to kind of work up the field on Maddox.
“Tom made a good throw. It was too far outside for the safety to get it and too far up the field for Maddox to get it, so it was really a good throw, a good catch. … That was kind of the tight coverage play. The other one was the third-down conversion.”
When Belichick is willing to admit Brady made a good throw, you know it was noteworthy.
