^^^ Had Tom Brady had those stats last week his defense would have pulled it out. Ours has been really bad. Tua's mistakes are magnified because this team has no room for error.
If the team hadn't gotten lucky with a strip of Matt Ryan on his 4th-quarter scramble, he would've likely driven the field and made the score 34-21 or 30-21 with only a few minutes left, thus making anything else Tua did meaningless. It's only when the defense can approximate its 2020 takeaway rate that it can function effectively. They were a paper tiger last year. Feasted on weak passing teams and were exploited by strong ones. Persisted almost entirely on takeaways. This year the takeaways are down, which is to be expected because it's a largely random variable and not one reflective of persistent skill, and so now they're being exposed for what they were last year minus the takeaways. The problem lies on the defensive line, where there is no player who reliably disrupts the opposing passer in the pocket. Consequently opposing QBs sit back and tee off on the defense.
Author