Wait. Are you guys saying it was a bad decision to throw down field to Gronk in single coverage against a LB and that you don't want Brady doing that?
When Gronk is playing on one leg? Absolutely. (even more so if you're going to underthrow him horribly, though that's beside the point).
But it's the circumstances that make this read especially bad. What makes the Pats good is that the "situational football" they talk about all the time. You don't want to make this throw on a 1st and 10 when you're up 2 points in the fourth quarter. You're on your own 43rd, your priority should be to put points on the board.
Somehow that guy with one leg got pretty far down the field. If he can't catch it one on one against a LB he probably shouldn't be in the game. It was a more likely catch than the Giant that caught that miracle on the sideline or Tyree's catch and nobody criticizes Eli for those
Of course he got pretty far down the field, Brady had all day to throw the ball the entire game.
It was also quite clear that Gronkowski wasn't able to change direction as well as he normally would, so instead of cutting back to get that underthrown pass, he was stiff-armed out of the way quite easily.
On the right, we had a receiver open for a first down. You don't take risks in this game until you have to.