ShareThisFOXBORO, Mass. - New England quarterback Tom Brady may be the favorite to win the NFL's Most Valuable Player award this season, but the leader of the 10-2 Patriots wants no part of that conversation.
When asked about his chances of winning the award and being named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week on Wednesday for the second consecutive week, Brady opted to instead talk about the Chicago Bears, who the Patriots will face on Sunday.
"I think the Chicago Bears are a good team, and we got to play well this week," he said. "I'm excited for the challenge. It's a short week for us. I think we've really got to prepare well. We're quite a few days behind them (after) playing Monday night. (Individual awards are) really the last thing on my mind."
Brady is ranked only eighth in the league in passing yards (3,029) and 10th in yards per game (252.4), but he does lead the league in passer rating (109.5) and touchdown passes with 27. As far as MVP candidates go, Brady has been every bit as important to the Pats' success, if not more, than others being talked about for the award -- Philip Rivers (San Diego), Michael Vick (Philadelphia), Drew Brees (New Orleans), Matt Ryan (Atlanta), Maurice Jones-Drew (Jacksonville) and Aaron Rogers (Green Bay).
More important, Brady makes everyone around him better. He is one of the best in the game at reading defenses and telling his linemen where the blitz is coming from, who to block and telling his receivers to adjust their routes if needed.
"He's playing great football right now," Bears coach Lovie Smith said of Brady. "But he's been playing great football for so long now. When has he not played great football? And I agree that he's outstanding right now, but to me, being a fan of the game, Tom has played great ball forever."
Brady is in the midst of his best four-game stretch of the season, and one of the best four-game stretches of his career. After the Patriots last loss -- on Nov. 7 in Cleveland -- Brady has been on fire. He's completed 73.3 percent of his passes (91 of 124) for 1,203 yards (300.8 per game) and 13 touchdowns with no interceptions. In fact, he hasn't thrown a pick since Week Six against Baltimore (Oct. 17). He's thrown only four interceptions all year.
"Right now he's going through a streak where we're looking for other words to describe it," Smith said. "He's a Hall of Fame quarterback and this is what they do."
"(There's) not really anything that I can say that hasn't been said about Tom Brady. He's the best quarterback in the game right now," Bears defensive end Julius Peppers said Wednesday. "He's playing at a high level, so we definitely have to do something to disrupt his rhythm and try to force him to make a couple of mistakes."
"Regardless of how I play it's how our offense plays. That's what I'm concerned most about," Brady said. "I think we've been playing better as of late, and we're going to need to continue to play better. The weather is getting colder. The conditions are getting tougher. Everyone has to be able to execute at a high level, and I think that the guys that are on the field that are playing play-in-play-out we're doing a good job of that.
"We're still searching for more consistency for all us, myself, Wes (Welker), Deion, the veteran guys, the younger players. The games only get bigger from here. That's really what we're preparing for."
Brady's built a strong level of trust with the players that he's now surrounded with.
"First of all you don't really realize that it's happening, but it is," injured running back Kevin Faulk said of building trust with Brady. "You do it in the course of practices, meetings, games, that all ways into everything and I think it's by doing you, making sure that you're making the best of your opportunities. If you are, he is going to reward you. Trust me."
"It starts with practice, really, that's how you earn his trust," said second-year receiver Brandon Tate. "In a game, you might drop a ball, but since he knows you, he'll be like, 'OK, this guy right here will bounce back.' "
Chicago is ranked third in total defense, giving up just 300.3 yards per game, first in third-down defense, limiting teams to an NFL-best 32 percent success rate on third down, and third in scoring defense at 16 points per game.
(Contact Robert Lee at roblee(at)projo.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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