History Shows Us Landry Jones Doesn’t Have To Be Exceptional To Beat Patriots

When the Pittsburgh Steelers host the New England Patriots Sunday at Heinz Field, it’s obvious that their defense will need to play well against quarterback Tom Brady in order to give them a chance to win the game. While one would think that Steelers quarterback Landry Jones needs to play exceptionally well in concert with the team’s defense in order to beat the Patriots, that hasn’t necessarily always been case in the 51 regular games that Brady has started and lost and especially when it comes to passing yardage.

In the 51 regular season games that Brady has started an lost, the opposing quarterback who beat, on average, completed 63.9% of his passes in addition to averaging 248 passing yards. The average amount of passing attempts in those 51 games was nearly 32.

As far as that completion percentage average of 63.9% goes, Jones, at the very least, will probably need to complete at least 60% of his passes Sunday against the Patriots if the Steelers hope to win the game. Only 16 times has Brady lost a game when the opposing quarterback has completed a lower percentage than that number.

As you would probably expect, Jones would be wise not to throw an interception Sunday at Heinz Field against the Patriots as Brady has only been beaten 24 times when the opposing quarterback has thrown one or more interceptions during the game. If he does throw one, the Steelers can still win, but if he throws two, you can probably turn your television off right then as only four times has Brady been beaten when an opposing quarterback has thrown more than one interception in a game.

Additionally, Jones will more than likely have to throw at least two touchdown passes Sunday against the Patriots if the Steelers want to have a good shot at winning the game. Only 20 times has Brady lost a game that he started when the opposing quarterback has thrown less than two touchdown passes in a game.

As far as sacks go, Jones, as you can imagine, Jones would be wise to not take many of those. Only 10 times has Brady and the Patriots been beaten in games that he started when the opposing quarterback has been sacked more than two times in a game.

I have the full list of the quarterbacks who have beaten Brady in a game that he started for you to look at below and as you can see, while the Patriots quarterback has lost at least once to some of the bigger names during his career such as Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees, Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Eli Manning and Kurt Warner, he’s also lost to several mediocre and below average quarterbacks as well.

If you remove the performances by those seven quarterbacks that I named above who have beaten Brady so far, the other 30 quarterbacks who have beaten Tom Terrific in a regular season game that he started averaged just 19 completions for 236 yards. that by the way, was in 39 of the 51 games that Brady has lost.

Can Jones become the 38th different quarterback on Sunday to beat Brady during a regular season game that he started? We’ll find out soon and as I wrote earlier in this post in a separate post on Thursday, he’ll need a lot of help from the Steelers defense in order to do so.