After five appearances in the sport’s ultimate game, Brady is less than two minutes from a record five rings.
Last time in Arizona, he had to watch Eli Manning drive his team down the field for the winning score in the final minute. Last night, it happened again and Brady was quick to give credit to his counterpart.
“Eli’s had a great season and he made some great throws there in the fourth quarter,’’ said Brady. “They deserved to win. They did a better job than we did.’’
In their last Super Bowl meeting it was David Tyree making a Velcro catch to keep the winning drive going. This time it was Mario Manningham pulling the thread through the needle and somehow keeping both feet in bounds with two defenders on him.
“That’s what it comes down to in football,’’ said Brady, who called it a phenomenal catch. “It’s one play. You look at our game four years ago and a miracle play that they make. Today, we had a chance to make one of those and didn’t come up with it. Either you make it and you celebrate, or if you don’t, you don’t sleep for a week.’’
If Brady had the ball in his hands longer than 23 minutes, New England might well have prevailed. He’d shrugged off a safety on his first play and brought his squad from a 9-0 deficit to a 17-9 lead with bookend touchdown passes to Danny Woodhead and Aaron Hernandez on either side of halftime.
And if a wide-open Wes Welker hadn’t dropped the ball with barely four minutes to play, Brady might have been able to finish off the New Yorkers then. “He went up to try to make it, as he always does, and we just couldn’t connect,’’ said Brady. “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.’’
If it hadn’t been for the safety on the Patriots’ first possession, Brady might have only needed to get within field goal range on the final drive. But when he’d gunned the ball well downfield to avoid being sacked in his end zone, he was called for intentional grounding and gave up what turned out to be 2 precious points.
