Patriots QB Tom Brady facing defensive pressure since returning from knee injury

Brady faces pressure in return from injury

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Opponents wasted no time pressuring Tom Brady.

On his first play of the season, the three-time champion was rushed by Buffalo Bills tackle Marcus Stroud and wrapped up by end Aaron Schobel. His pass fell incomplete. His shoulder pad popped out from his jersey.

On the first series of his second game, Brady was leveled when blitzing New York Jets linebacker Bart Scott ran in unblocked.

Are teams just running their normal defenses? Is the offensive line more vulnerable this year? Or is Brady less mobile after having surgery for a left knee injury that ended his 2008 season in the first quarter of the opener.

New England’s quarterback sidestepped that last question.

“I’ve never been very mobile,” he said with a smile. Teams “are going to do whatever they think they need to do to win.”

For the Jets, that meant pressuring or hitting Brady 23 times in last Sunday’s 16-9 win.

“He looked frustrated,” New York defensive end Shaun Ellis said. “I could see it in his eyes. His eyes were wide open. I looked in his eyes a few times. He was trying to figure out where everyone was coming from.”

In the opener, a 25-24 win in which Brady and the offense struggled most of the game against the Bills, he was sacked only once but was hurried many times.

“We tried to take the approach that he hadn’t played football in a year and there are a lot of things that he had practiced against but probably hadn’t seen and hadn’t had that much game speed,” Buffalo defensive coordinator Perry Fewell said. “I think people are taking that approach with him because, hey, he was off for a whole year and then you come back.

“The guy is good, but still, that was a year without football.”

The next coach to unleash his pass rushers against Brady will be Atlanta’s Mike Smith when the Falcons visit the Patriots on Sunday. In two games, unbeaten Atlanta has five sacks.

Smith said he doesn’t see any changes in Brady’s footwork in the pocket since the knee injury.

“When we are evaluating our opponent, we don’t evaluate on one or two games. We evaluate on the whole piece of work,” said Smith, the Jaguars’ former defensive coordinator. “He doesn’t look any different than he has from when we played him while I was in Jacksonville.”

Quarterbacks can take advantage of a blitz by throwing quickly to a receiver who would have been guarded by the blitzer. They also can dissuade teams from rushing too hard by throwing screen passes or handing off more.

But so far the Patriots have run only 43 times while Brady has thrown 100 passes.

“There have been many years around here that we haven’t run the ball as many times as people think and (quarterback pressure) wasn’t a problem,” said running back Kevin Faulk, now in his 11th season with New England. “And just now that we lose a game, running the ball is a problem? No, it’s us as a football team that we have to do better.”

The Jets aren’t the only team that blitzes, Faulk pointed out. They just disguise it better to try to confuse the offense. The Falcons also try hard to pressure the quarterback without confusing him as much.

“It’s a very different scheme,” Brady said. “This team lines up and they come at you and it’s not like it’s a big mystery where they’re bringing their stuff from.”

Brady is a pocket passer. When he’s flushed out, he’s not nearly as effective.

Screen passes can keep a defense honest, but they have to be executed well. Brady threw one against Buffalo that Schobel intercepted and returned for a touchdown.

“They’re all about being productive when you call them,” Brady said. “The last game we didn’t have many opportunities.”

Teams can bring more pressure when a quarterback’s team falls behind and he has to throw. The Patriots trailed the Bills for most of the game and the Jets for almost the entire second half.

“When you throw it as much as we’ve been throwing it, they’re going to get in there,” Brady said. “It’s just part of our offense. Part of it is getting rid of it quickly, making the right read, making the right throw and trying really to make the right play.”

But there’s only so much a quarterback can do to avoid being pressured. The offensive line has to block well. Receivers have to get open. And all of it has to come together while 300-pound defensive linemen are trying to knock the quarterback to the ground.

“There are a lot of moving parts there,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “That’s the difference between football and baseball. Baseball, you stand on the mound, take the ball and throw whatever you want to throw. Football, you’ve got guys coming at you, different guys running routes, guys covering them.

“The defense isn’t going to sit there and stay still. They’re going to give you different things to work on and pick up and you’ve got to be ready to handle them.”

AP Sports Writers Dennis Waszak Jr. in New York and John Wawrow in Buffalo contributed to this report.