Ryan Clark, the hard-hitting free safety patrolling the Pittsburgh Steelers secondary along with strong safety Troy Polamalu stirred the pot on ESPN's NFL Live with comments about Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
He said the key to unraveling the Patriots star passer is applying pressure, and keeping that pressure constant.
"In 2010, we saw it start with the Jets in the playoffs," he said. "When Tom Brady gets pressure and when you're man-to-man and bumping those guys and making it hard for him to throw, he sees ghosts. Even when guys aren't around him, even when he's not about to be sacked, when his clock goes off in his head that the ball should be out, we'll see him duck, we'll see him flinch. When you get Tom Brady doing that, the whole New England Patriots mystique goes away."
Clark cited two examples of Brady's reactions to different defensive looks. He told his NFL Live co-hosts that Brady picked the Steelers apart when they tried to use zone defenses while rushing five at the quarterback.
In a different example, Clark said, "Two years ago we played them and dominated them because we went man-to-man and had a big corner in Cortez Allen on [Rob] Gronkowski, and made it hard for Tom Brady to get the ball off, in timing, and made him to have to make plays. It was hard for him."
Clark was also critical of New England's apparent apathy toward the defection of long-time slot receiver Wes Welker to the Denver Broncos. Clark cited new slot receiver Danny Amendola's injury history as a major red flag. I know they think Danny Amendola can come in and have the same type of numbers he had with the Rams, but we also have to remember, he's fragile."
Brady will surely not forget these comments when the two teams square off November 3rd in New England. In six career games against the Steelers, Brady is 4-2 with 14 touchdowns to just three interceptions.
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