As good as the New England Patriots can be on offense when Tom Brady is in rhythm, it’s alarming how poor they can be when things aren’t clicking.
Consider Sunday’s crushing loss to the Giants in the Super Bowl.
At the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half, Brady was playing at a different level.
In the stunning 96-yard drive that resulted in their first touchdown, the Patriots actually gained 108 yards because of penalties and had to traverse 98 yards because they had a false start on their first-down play from the 4-yard line. On that drive, Brady completed all 10 of his pass attempts for 98 yards.
He picked up right where he left at the start of the third quarter, moving the Patriots 79 yards and completing all five of his passes for 54 yards. Those two possessions lasted a total of just 7:35 and the total yards gained were 187 on 22 plays for an average of 8.5 yards per play.
However, the Patriots never scored again, and their offense was almost Rams-like for the remainder of the game. They possessed the ball for only 22:55 in the game, and in all of their other possessions, the Patriots had 40 plays for just 162 yards (4.05 per play). Brady’s numbers were 12-for-26 for 124 yards.
Kellen Clemens would be proud.
The drop: Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker had seven receptions for 60 yards against the Giants, but it was one he didn’t make that was a big difference in the game.
The Patriots were leading 17-15 and faced a second-and-11 play from the Giants’ 44-yard line with 4:06 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Welker broke open on the left side of the field, but Brady’s pass forced Welker to adjust his body. The ball is usually inside the numbers, but Brady threw it outside the numbers because he wanted to avoid the safety. Welker got both hands on the ball at about the 21-yard line, but failed to catch it. After a third-down incompletion, the Patriots punted, leading to the Giants’ 88-yard drive for the winning touchdown.
Said Brady, “It looked like they messed the coverage up a little bit and I threw it to him. He went up to try and make it, as he always does, and we just couldn’t connect. He’s a hell of a player. I’ll keep throwing the ball to him for as long as I possibly can. He’s a phenomenal player and teammate and I love that guy.”
That didn’t make the sting any less for Welker.
He said, “The ball is right there. I’ve just got to make the play. It’s a play I’ve made a thousand times in practice. It comes to the biggest moment of my life and don’t come up with it. I mean, it’s a play I never drop, I always make. Most critical situation and I let the team down. It’s discouraging.
“It’s one I’ll have to live with.”
The catch: Meanwhile, Giants wide receiver Mario Manningham had five receptions for 73 yards against New England, but no catch was bigger or more spectacular than his 38-yard reception that moved the ball from the 12-yard line to midfield, and led to the winning touchdown.
Manningham managed to get both feet in bounds and controlled the ball through the catch. He caught two more passes for 18 yards on the drive, including one for 16 yards on the next play after the 38-yard grab.
Offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride said the Patriots’ defensive plan with a lot of Cover-2 forced the Giants to be conservative and throw a lot underneath.
“But,” Gilbride said, “you have to take some shots.”
On that play, Manning had the option to go down the sideline to Manningham or go to the other side for a corner route.
“They had us covered pretty well to the right,” Manning said. “I looked that way. I saw the safety cheated in a little bit and threw it down the sideline. That’s a huge play in the game right there.”
Said Gilbride, “Once we were at midfield, we could go back underneath and move the ball, knowing we needed a field goal to go ahead.”
Earlier in the fourth quarter, Manning connected with Manningham on the same play to the right side, but he wasn’t able to get both feet in bounds.
The interception: Giants linebacker Chase Blackburn didn’t hear from any teams when the lockout ended in July, so he waited patiently. Finally, after waiting for about four months, he lined up a job as a substitute math teacher in Dublin, Ohio.
Of course, that’s when the phone rang, and the Giants needed him because of injuries. As coach Tom Coughlin said, “From the moment he arrived, it was like he never left. He absorbed where we were really fast, jumped right back into special teams, jumped into the linebacker role, and progressed."
Said Blackburn, "I'm a pretty optimistic person. I do have that quality going for me. I have a good amount of perseverance. I just kept praying to get an opportunity — my wife and I prayed — and I wanted to be ready when the opportunity did present itself."
It did in Super Bowl XLVI. With the Patriots leading 17-15 early in the fourth quarter, two first downs had put them at their own 43-yard line on first down. Quarterback Tom Brady tried to go deep down field to tight end Rob Gronkowski, but Blackburn was with him all the way, and made a leaping catch of the underthrown pass.
“I had position, and I knew I wanted the ball,” Blackburn said. “It helped that he had a sore ankle. We were in a defense where I had to carry him vertical all the way down the field. I think he (Brady) busted out of a sack and he just threw it up for grabs. I finally found the ball and I just tried to box him out.”
Said an admiring coach Tom Coughlin, “That was an incredible play by Chase.”
The almost flop: The Patriots got the ball back at the end of the game with 57 seconds remaining when the Patriots simply allowed running back Ahmad Bradshaw to score a touchdown so they would have time to have a chance.
With only one timeout remaining, the Giants were at the 6-yard line and planning to run the clock down to about 18 seconds before kicking the go-ahead field goal. Coach Tom Coughlin and offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride didn’t anticipate what the Patriots would do. Quarterback Eli Manning did, but too late.
“I had a feeling they might do that,” Manning said. “I should have got to him and told him not to score. As I broke the huddle, it kind of crossed my mind. As I got the snap, I saw their d-line just ease up and I was yelling to Ahmad ‘Not to score, not to score.’”
Said Bradshaw, “I heard Eli saying, ‘Don’t score, don’t score,’ and I tried to give myself up, but my momentum took me into the end zone. I wanted to declare myself down.”
Asked what he was feeling with the ball in Brady’s hands again, Bradshaw said, “I was nervous. I was so anxious, I was shaking. To have the ball in his hands in that situation was scary.”
Whither Rob: Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski claimed “I was 100 percent out there doing everything they asked me to do,” but he was targeted for only three of quarterback Tom Brady’s 41 pass attempts, catching two for 26 yards.
Said Brady, “He played his butt off. He fought. He came out to our practice on Thursday and it’s hard to believe he could play the game with the way he was feeling. He really toughed it out. He’s a tough guy. He had a great season for us. You get bumps and bruises in this game and you have to fight through them and he did a great job fighting and being dependable for us all day.”
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