The image was eye-opening: A shell-shocked, defeated Tom Brady, pulled from the game following a pick-6, sitting alone with his thoughts on the bench as rookie quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was throwing a garbage-time touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski Monday night in Kansas City.
We have seen Brady (and Bill Belichick) rise off the deck with a vengeance time and time again.
History tells us it is folly to dance on the graves of Belichick and Brady.
Reports of their demise always have been greatly exaggerated.
The game has certainly not passed the great Belichick by.
But Tom Brady has never been 37 years old before.
And right now he is looking the way most 37-year-old quarterbacks look, and Father Time shows no mercy to Pretty Boys, either.
Which means we may be witnessing the beginning of the end of Tom Terrific as an elite quarterback.
For once, Brady isn’t making everyone around him better, at a time when everyone catching passes from him and blocking for him is worse than anyone can remember.
The only receiver Brady trusts is Julian Edelman. Gronkowski isn’t 100 percent and may never be, young receivers such as Aaron Dobson and Kenbrell Thompkins were inactive against the Chiefs, and Aaron Hernandez won’t be helping anytime soon against lockdown corners. RB Shane Vereen’s involvement in the passing game is game plan-specific. Brandon LaFell showed signs in the Kansas City Massacre, but does anyone believe he’s the answer?
Belichick hasn’t done Brady any favors. Until proven otherwise, Belichick may have made a fatal mistake jettisoning Logan Mankins, a glue guard and locker-room leader, to the Bucs for tight end Timothy Wright.
Brady can’t complete a pass beyond 20 yards in part because he is under siege behind an experimental offensive line and in part because Belichick hasn’t supplied him with a Randy Moss. Letting Wes Welker go and replacing him with Danny Amendola has bombed.
Brady’s 5.77 yards per attempt ranks him 33rd among quarterbacks. Only a year ago it was 6.9. His career mark? 7.4.
His completion percentage is 59.1. His career mark? 63.3. His QB rating is 79.1. His career mark? 95.4.
The retirement of offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia was a big loss as well. Brady is simply getting hit too often. He looks like a quarterback who has endured 352 career sacks — happy feet, anxiety-ridden, flinching in the face of onrushing predators. He too often is seeing ghosts instead of open receivers.
“Scared to death,” former teammate Rodney Harrison said Tuesday on WEEI radio.
“We’ve allowed too much pressure or created the situations where the defense has gotten pressure on him,” offensive coordinator Josh McDaniel said.
Brady was only the marquee face of failure of the entire operation. Belichick’s defense — supposedly fortified by the return from injury of Vince Wilfork and Jerod Mayo and the signing of Darrelle Revis — was in full retreat against Alex Smith and Jamaal Charles.
“They beat us like we stole something,” Wilfork said.
The 3-0 Bengals, coming off their bye week, on Sunday night visit Gillette Stadium, where they will probably find an angry 2-2 Patriots team.
“There’s no doubt that this will be a challenging period of time for our team in terms of our mental toughness and resiliency and being able to handle a lot in somewhat of a compressed period,” Belichick said Tuesday.
John Elway didn’t win his first Super Bowl until he was 37. He won his second when he was 38. Peyton Manning got back to the Super Bowl last February (and probably wishes he hadn’t) seven weeks shy of his 38th birthday.
The great ones can figure out a way, and Brady, with his three rings and five Super Bowl appearances, is one of the top five quarterbacks of all time.
It doesn’t mean there isn’t hope today in Miami, in Buffalo, and yes, even in Florham Park.
Because this much is certain: Tom Twilight’s seemingly endless reign of terror is clearly much closer to the end than it is to the beginning.
And it may be over far sooner than anyone could have imagined.