Dr. Z on Tom Brady.

SI's Dr. Z gives Tom Brady the business:

Why is Peyton Manning getting so much heat now while Tom Brady gets none?....

Both clubs suffered the same postseason malady. It's called out of sync. Blitzes were their undoing. Maybe that will be the new defensive textbook for playoff football. When you're playing a team that clinched early and rested people, blitz the hell out of them because they'll be rusty in their adjustments.

With Brady, his early problems were kind of brushed aside in the Jacksonville game because it became a runaway in the second half. But the Patriots had gone through a miserable first half. Brady was 7-for-17 for minimal yardage. He'd been sacked four times. His passes were sailing and nosing, receivers were running the wrong pattern or dropping the ball. But how could you dwell on stuff like that after a 28-3 victory? ...

[O]n Saturday night[, t]he whole New England operation was skewed. Things weren't crisp. Brady was off, even on some of his little checkdowns. One play was embarrassing: a smoke, or shoot route, in which Brady whips the ball quickly to a receiver out wide and if he can beat his man with one fake, he's off and running, only this time David Givens was downfield while Brady was throwing out wide -- to no one.