Tom Brady’s 13 Interceptions in 2014

Tom Brady played incredibly throughout the 2014 season throwing for 43 touchdowns and only throwing 13 interceptions on his way to winning Super Bowl XLIX. This film breakdown will take a look at those 13 interceptions Brady threw throughout the regular and postseason.

Regular Season Stats
Brady - 373/582 (64.1%), 4,109 yards, 7.06 ypa, 33 TDs, 9 INTs
Postseason Stats
Brady - 93/135 (68.9%), 921 yards, 6.82 ypa, 10 TDs, 4 INTs

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Play 1
Situation: 2nd and 5 at NE 25
Description: Q3 - (7:15) T.Brady pass deep left intended for B.LaFell INTERCEPTED by S.Smith at NE 47. S.Smith to NE 13 for 34 yards (J.Edelman).
Opponent: KC

Offensive Formation: Shotgun Slot Left Far
Offensive Personnel: 12
Defensive Formation: Cover 3

In this play, WR11 Edelman is in the slot running an out-and-up, while WR19 LaFell is running a deep hitch route. The Chiefs pre-snap line up in a Cover 1 look, but drop the strong safety and the far outside cornerback in to deep zone coverage forming a Cover 3 shell.

This play is the fault of a route miscommunication. WR11 Edleman stops on his out-and-up while Brady was expecting him to complete his route giving CB21 Smith a very easy interception. Outside of the route miscommunication the placement of this ball was horrible as it was too far inside. If Edleman kept running this would have led Edleman right into Smith anyways even if he continued on his route.

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Play 2
Situation: 3rd and 4 at NE 26
Description: Q4 - (10:44) (Shotgun) T.Brady pass short middle intended for B.LaFell INTERCEPTED by H.Abdullah at NE 39. H.Abdullah for 39 yards, TOUCHDOWN. PENALTY on KC-H.Abdullah, Unnecessary Roughness, 15 yards, enforced between downs. C.Santos extra point is GOOD, Center-T.Gafford, Holder-D.Colquitt.
Opponent: KC

Offensive Formation: Shotgun Empty Set Trips Left Slot Right - Also called “Sun Left” formation
Offensive Personnel: 01
Defensive Formation: Cover 1 with two underneath defenders in zone coverage, man-to-man across the board

In Play 2, the Patriots are already down 34-7 with 10:44 left in the 4th quarter and Brady looks for WR19 LaFell over the middle of the field running a post route from the inside of the trips left. This is a tight throw that has to be made with looking off the linebackers to open seam over the middle of the field. Unfortunately, FS39 Abdullah reads Brady and breaks on the ball as Brady is winding up to throw it for the interception. With WR11 Edleman open on his in-route from the outside of the trips, which is a very common read to target in man-to-man coverage on the trips side of the field, the ball should have gone there for the easy first down. This one is completely on Brady.

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Play 3
Situation: 3rd and 10 at NE 46
Description: Q3 - (13:35) (Shotgun) T.Brady pass short left intended for D.Amendola INTERCEPTED by B.Roby [M.Jackson] at DEN 43. B.Roby to DEN 43 for no gain (J.Edelman).
Opponent: DEN

Offensive Formation: Shotgun Slot Right Far
Offensive Personnel: 11
Defensive Formation: Cover 1, man-to-man coverage

Brady takes the snap from shotgun and sees WR80 Amendola running a drag-route across the formation. There is pressure immediately in Brady’s face from DT97 Jackson who angles to the A-gap between the left guard and the center. Jackson doesn’ get picked up by either offensive lineman forcing Brady to throw the ball off his backfoot. The ball hits Amendola in the fingertips higher and sooner than Amendola expected the ball, so it bounces off his hands for CB29 Roby to make a diving catch for the interception. It must be noted that DT95 Wolfe did tip the ball very slightly as well which may have (partially) caused the deflection off of Amendola’s fingertips.

The left guard and center blocking breakdown to let Jackson unimpeded into the backfield immediately off of the snap causes the throw to be sooner than necessary. This causes Brady to backfoot the throw higher than it normally would have been on this play if Brady had the time to plant for the throw. I don’t blame Brady for this throw as much as others might because in my opinion, if the ball was thrown lower it would have been batted down at the line of scrimmage by DT95 Wolfe and the vast majority of the time these balls aren’t intercepted.

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Play 4
Situation: 1st and 10 at NE 49
Description: Q1 - (3:09) (Run formation) T.Brady pass deep middle intended for B.Tyms INTERCEPTED by M.Adams [E.Walden] at IND 6. M.Adams to IND 6 for no gain (B.Tyms).
Opponent: IND

Offensive Formation: Singleback Big
Offensive Personnel: 12
Defensive Formation: Cover 2

Brady runs play-action bootleg and steps up into the pocket. LB93 Walden penetrates into the backfield inside RT76 Vollmer’s B-gap. Brady looks deep and releases a ball for WR84 Tyms running a deep post route down the middle of the field. As Brady releases the ball he gets hit by Walden to the ground and the ball sails left of his intended target causing the interception by SS29 Adams.

Tyms actually does a good job of using his deep speed to get behind FS38 Brown, but since the ball was thrown too far inside Tyms didn’t have a chance at it. This ball needs to be placed 3-4 yards further to the right and it would have been a good play. This interception is on Brady and RT76 Vollmer for getting beaten inside.

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Play 5
Situation: 3rd and 1 at NE 17
Description: Q2 - (1:25) (Run formation) C.Fleming reported in as eligible. T.Brady pass deep left intended for R.Gronkowski INTERCEPTED by M.Adams at NE 33. M.Adams to NE 23 for 10 yards (N.Solder).
Opponent: IND

Offensive Formation: Singleback Jumbo
Offensive Personnel: 13
Defensive Formation: Cover 1

This is Mike Adams’ second interception on Brady this game and the setup is similar to Play 4. Brady runs play-action bootleg. After the snap, NT96 Chapman penetrates into the backfield. Brady feels this pressure immediately and throws the ball up hoping for TE87 Gronkowski to come down with it after sprinting off of the line of scrimmage on his go-route. Brady launches the ball off his backfoot while stumbling backwards and it predictably comes up short of it’s intended target leading to an easy interception by Adams.

If Brady had time this could have been an easy touchdown. On this play I blame Brady for the interception for forcing the throw and for RG62 Wendell for allowing the immediate pressure off of the snap in the backfield.

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Play 6
Situation: 1st and 10 at DET 10
Description: Q3 - (12:04) (Shotgun) T.Brady pass short middle intended for R.Gronkowski INTERCEPTED by J.Ihedigbo at DET 2. J.Ihedigbo to DET 7 for 5 yards (J.Edelman). DET-J.Bynes was injured during the play. DET-D.Slay was injured during the play.
Opponent: DET

Offensive Formation: Shotgun Double Right Far
Offensive Personnel: 11
Defensive Formation: Cover 2

Brady is in shotgun and has two wide receivers on the right outside. TE87 Gronkowski stands on the line of scrimmage near the right tackle. Gronkoski runs a post-route across the middle of the field and Brady watches him from the snap waiting for him to break hard to the inside. Brady leads Gronkowski too far allowing Ihedigbo to make a play on the ball after he watched Brady lock onto Gronkowski from the beginning of the play. This interception is on Brady.

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