FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady first landed on the injury report following the Nov. 19 victory over the Oakland Raiders. He missed at least one practice and was limited in others in the next three weeks. The team has listed him with an Achilles injury.
How much has the injury affected him?
Brady has consistently said he feels fine and is getting extra treatment to be at his best on game day. But the three games since he's been on the injury report, as research from Matt Williams of ESPN's Stats & Information details, have been below his regular standard.
In his first 10 games, Brady was averaging 314.7 passing yards per game, while in the last three the number is down to 239.3. Likewise, his completion percentage is down from 69 in the first 10 games to 62 in the last three.
Furthermore, Brady threw two interceptions in the first 10 games, but has four in the last three games. For only the third time in his career, Brady has recorded a touchdown-to-interception ratio below 1.00 in consecutive weeks; it is the first time he has done so since Weeks 12 and 13 of the 2006 season.
Part of that, of course, could be due to factors surrounding him.
The Patriots were playing without tight end Rob Gronkowski this past Monday as he was serving a one-week NFL suspension. Starting wide receiver Chris Hogan also just returned from a four-game absence Monday, and he was knocking off rust.
Yet Brady has found success in similar short-handed situations in the past.
Another area that has been a struggle for him in the the last three games is the deep ball.
Per Williams' research, Brady has no touchdown passes and four interceptions when passing 15 yards or more down the field in the last three games. His four such interceptions are tied with Russell Wilson and Marcus Mariota for the most during that span.
Before that, Brady had completed 52 percent of his passes that traveled at least 15 yards (ranking seventh in the NFL in that span), while totaling six passing touchdowns (tied for 7th) and just one interception.
As for facing pressure, Brady was the NFL's best passer in terms of completion percentage and yards per attempt in the first 10 games when deemed to be under duress. But in the last three games, since he's been on the injury report, he is completing less than 42 percent of his passes when deemed to be under duress, and his yards per attempt has dropped 3.5 yards.
Brady addressed reporters later in the day Thursday, and was asked about participating fully in practices Wednesday and Thursday this week after having missed at least one practice each of the prior three weeks.
"Just feeling better. So, it’s a short week, so I just try to get out there and practice," he said. "Like I said, I take it week-to-week, and I feel really good this week, so I’m very happy about that."