We love to watch Tom Brady throw the football.

It's like watching Rembrandt paint, or Michelangelo sculpt.

It's art.

It's like listening to a symphony by Beethoven, or hearing Pavarotti sing.

It's sheer, awe-inspiring talent.

Watching Brady pass the ball is like seeing Jack Nicholson act.

It's great theater.

It's like watching Gisele Bundchen-Brady parade along a fashion runway.

It's a thing of beauty.

But, much as we love it, it might be a good thing if we don't see quite so much of it.

Brady threw 53 passes in the season opener Monday night against the Bills. He completed 39, for 378 yards. He threw for two touchdowns -- both scoring tosses coming, dramatically, in the final 2:06 as the Patriots, after falling behind, 24-13, with five minutes to play, rallied to win, 25-24.

He was 9-for-11, for all 81 yards of the New England scoring drive that cut Buffalo's lead to 24-19 with 2:06 remaining, then was 3-for-3, for all 31 yards, in the game-winning drive. With the clock running out, the Patriots didn't have time to run the ball at all.

It was an exciting performance, a thrilling performance, a clutch performance – especially considering that it was the first game Brady had played since tearing ligaments in his left knee in the 2008 season opener.

But here's the thing: If Brady has to throw 53 times in every game, he'll never make it through the 2009 season.

If he has to throw 53 times against Rex Ryan's blitz-happy New York Jets, he may not make it through Sunday's game at the Meadowlands.

"It was a lot of throws," Brady said.

Too many?

As it turned out, it was exactly the right number, considering that the last throw was an 18-yard completion to tight end Ben Watson for the winning touchdown with 50 seconds remaining.

But do the Patriots really want him to throw that often against the Jets?

"We'll do whatever we feel like we need to do to win the game," coach Bill Belichick said. "Whatever we feel like is the best thing to do, whether it's throw the ball, run the ball, blitz, cover, play a five-man line, play a two-man line, play five receivers, play four tight ends -- whatever we think is the best thing to do, that's what we're going to do."

What the Jets most assuredly are going to do is try to pressure Brady. They will bring blitzers to try to make him throw before he wants to, perhaps to make an ill-advised throw that will be intercepted, ideally to knock him to the ground before he has a chance to throw.

"It's a blitz team," Brady said. "You've got to ready and prepared for the blitz."

The Houston Texans and their quarterback, Matt Schaub, weren't ready last Sunday, when they were blitzed in their home opener by the Jets, 24-7.

"The Texans are a good football team," Belichick said. "[The Jets] made them look bad."

The Jets sacked Schaub twice, intercepted him once, harassed him numerous times, and wound up in possession of the football for almost 39 minutes.

"Houston was supposed to have this really high-powered offense," said Brady, "and went out there and didn't even have 200 yards of offense. So we've got our work cut out for us.

"It comes down to execution. You have to be able to block them. You have to know, and account for, their different blitz schemes and then get open versus some tight coverage."

That won't be easy against the Jets.

For all Ryan's bluster, he knows what he's talking about when it comes to defense.

"They run a lot of ‘overload' blitzes," said Belichick, who knows a thing or two about defense himself. "They try to bring a lot of people from one place to where you can't get enough blockers over there. They'll bring the house."

"It's a very aggressive front," said Brady, "and it's tricky to find out who's coming. They do a great job of disguising. The players they have on the field can all rush and they can all cover. That's the challenging part – you really don't know who's rushing and you don't know who's covering. Sometimes they don't have any D-linemen on the field -- they just have all linebackers and secondary guys. You really have no clue what they're going to do on most downs and distances.

"We've got to really be aware of what we're doing in our protection, and get rid of the ball quick. We're going to need to play, certainly, better than we did the other night."

Brady's certainly right about that.

The Patriots should have lost Monday night. They probably would have lost had the Bills' kick returner, Leodis McKelvin, not decided to run the ball out of the end zone, fumbling it away at the Buffalo 31, paving the way for Brady's last-minute passing heroics.

Although the Pats ran 77 plays to Buffalo's 48, and had possession for 37:08, they controlled the ball, and the clock, through the air. They ran just 23 times, for 77 yards.

Knowing Brady is going to throw enables teams to come after him with impunity. Not to mention a bunch of blitzers.

"The more you're in long yardage," Belichick said, "the more you're going to see some kind of pressure."

The more Brady throws, the more hits he's likely to take, thus increasing the odds that something unpleasant may happen to his surgically repaired knee, or his tender right shoulder, or some other part of his handsome frame.

And behind him is undrafted rookie Brian Hoyer, whose passing is not a work of art, but a work in progress.

At least we hope it's progress.

We also hope we don't have to find out Sunday.

jdonaldso@projo.com