New England Patriots: Tom Brady is focused on limiting turnovers

Even though New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is the likely NFL MVP, he has had some issues protecting the ball lately.

The New England Patriots are likely going to be the No.1 overall seed in the AFC if they can defeat the New York Jets on Sunday afternoon. While it has been a great season for the Patriots, their likely MVP has had some issues lately.

It has been another great season for Tom Brady in 2017. As arguably the best quarterback in the NFL still at the age of 40, Brady has done a great job keeping father time away. This season, Brady has totaled 4,387 passing yards, 30 passing touchdowns, and eight interceptions.

With one more favorable game coming up against the Jets, Brady will almost certainly exceed 4,500 passing yards for the season. While the overall season has been great for Brady, he has made some uncharacteristic mistakes lately.

In his last five games, Brady has thrown at least one interception in each of them. Even though the Patriots have a 4-1 record in those games, Brady knows that turnovers can cost a team a game. Recently, Brady discussed the interceptions of late with Mike Reiss of ESPN.com.

"“I’m always trying to keep those down,” Brady said of the interceptions. “There’s been more in the last couple of games than there should be. I think it’s just making smart decisions. Whenever they get their hands on it, it’s not a good thing for the offense. Putting it in places where only we can touch it or we can catch it is important, especially understanding the situations in the games”"

The only game that the interceptions really cost the Patriots was against the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football. In a game without Rob Gronkowski and right before the big showdown against the Steelers, the entire Patriots team did not look good. In that game, Brady threw two interceptions and the Patriots suffered the loss.

Come playoff time, Brady will surely be trying to limit the turnovers and play like he was for most of the season. In the playoffs, games can be decided with who wins the all-important turnover battle. For the Patriots, ball control is always stressed.

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Even though Brady might be struggling a bit in the past few games with the turnovers, there is no reason to think that he won’t be able to limit them moving forward. With an easy game coming up against the Jets, this will be a good opportunity for Brady to start that.