New England Patriots: The Chemistry Between Brady and Lloyd

The Chemistry between Brandon Lloyd and Tom Brady has been a point of much debate between Patriot fans. I’m sure some people believe that Tom Terrific is  trying to treat Brandon Lloyd like Randy Moss.  There are other fans that believe that the chemistry is way off between Brady and Lloyd.  I’m sure many of you out there in the world have  different views on this issue. I am no mind reader but I am sure that Brady knows damn well that Lloyd is not Randy Moss and has never viewed him in that sense. Coach Belichick and Brady have always been an evaluator of talent, and look at every player for their skill set. When they look at player they see the pros and cons of everything they can to do. I strongly believe that there are a lot of things going behind the closed doors of Gillette Stadium and game planning is a huge part of it.

David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

This last Sunday’s game is a perfect example of how the Patriots use everyone. Look at the injuries that had occurred last Sunday. The New England Patriots lost Gronkowski and Woodhead to injury; they used Vereen instead and  immediately changed the game plan. Now when Woodhead came out of the game with a possible thumb or hand injury in the 1^st quarter. I want to believe that our OC immediately went and plugged in Vereen, because of his similar skill set. Now back to Lloyd, he is receiver that does a great job outside the numbers, where the team needs him to play. When looking at the game plan, Lloyd’s role changes every week.  He plays a particular position where McDaniel’s cannot just plug in another receiver and hope he can do the same thing. Lloyd has unique skill set that opponents are forced to game plan for. When the Patriots plan for their next opponent, Lloyd’s abilities are establish against the opposing team defensive players.

Last Sundays game against the Texans is a perfect example of opponents game planning against Lloyd. The Texans placed their best coverage guy on him and attempted to take him out of the game plan. The Patriots on the other hand had a different game plan that called for the ball to go somewhere else, most of the time. The fact the the Texans assigned CB Joseph to cover Lloyd the entire game, and still he could not cover him completely. I do not know if it was a coverage scheme or Joseph was tired, the CB played off of Lloyd on most of his catches including his TD catch. My football sense tells me the was a Texans coverage scheme and the Patriots immediately capitalized on the opportunity. Also looking at this past game there were times that Tom Brady need to take breath, relax and then throw the ball. If he had just taken that nanosecond of breath, a lot of throws to Lloyd and other receivers would have been made with the precision that Brady has. This is exactly what makes the Patriots offensive so scary, is that ability to constantly change and adapt there plan to the game. This next matchup with the Ravens will be a prefect example of the every changing offensive plan. When it comes to the Ravens I cannot say that how they will respond to Lloyd this time, but I do imagine that they will cover him and the game plan will evolve around what the Ravens do.

I was part of debate this weekend on Twitter, which stated Brady was treating Lloyd like Moss.

(AP Photo/Gary Wiepert)

That is far from the truth as we know it, Brady is human, and makes mistakes. I believe there is never an instance where Tom looks for Moss on the field. He is not that old, yet and will not be for some time. When comes down to how Lloyd is used the dynamic attack that is our offense, it changes from week to week, game to game and nothing is going to change that.  The Chemistry between Brady and Lloyd is fine, and will continue to be a fluid, an ever changing match-up.

This Sunday at 1830 EST, the game plan will be totally different from anything we have seen this season. The Patriots have far too many weapons to use and I bet there won’t be any decoys in this game of divisional champs.