In the end, it’s Brady
Duel with Rodgers goes Pats’ way
FOXBORO – With Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers hooking up for just the second time in their storied careers, this showdown was can’t-miss for greatness and fireworks.
After all, there was so much hype and anticipation surrounding the duel between the two best quarterbacks in the game. And why not?
With five MVPs, six Super Bowl titles and 19 Pro Bowl appearances between them, not to mention a huge competitive streak in both of them, Brady and Rodgers would surely put on a show.
This bout, however, took a little time to get going. It basically provided fits and starts of the duel that was forecast. For much of the game, Brady and Rodgers struggled to take advantage of opportunities.
Both quarterbacks put the ball up a ton with mixed results heading into the final quarter. There were long completions and exciting plays, just not a ton of pointscoring until the flood gates opened for the Patriots in the fourth quarter.
That was a surprise. A second surprise?
The Patriots best pass wasn’t thrown by Brady. It was delivered by Julian Edelman on a razzle-dazzle play in the fourth. After taking a lateral from Brady, Edelman then threw across the field and hit James White for a 37yard pass completion that set up the Patriots third touchdown, allowing them to take a 24-17 lead.
Brady hit Josh Gordon for a 55-yard touchdown pass on their next series to make it 31-17, and all seemed right from the Patriots sideline. Considering both Rob Gronkowski and Sony Michel were out, this was a tremendous effort by Brady and the offense.
While Brady tried to play it cool during the week, he did admit to former Patriot teammate Rodney Harrison, now an NBC commentator, he had a little something extra going last night because of the matchup with Rodgers.
“I think when you play the greats, and he’s one of the greats, and, when I played Peyton Manning, I absolutely wanted to raise my game,” Brady said. “I absolutely looked over, and said, ‘this guy, he’s gonna bring it. And I’m gonna bring it. Let’s see where it goes.
“I’m leading my offense. He’s leading his offense, we got guys guys we need to do their job on defense and special teams. But, you know that these are the games you remember. I remember all the games against Peyton Manning. I remember the game I played against Aaron in 2014 at Green Bay. That was a great game. We had our chance. We kind of blew our chance.”
Last night, the Patriots were fast out of the gate, both literally and figuratively. Brady led the team on a surgical first drive in the nohuddle without Gronk (back/ankle) or Michel (knee), who were late scratches. They went 10 plays, 59 yards, with Brady hitting Mr. Everything James White with a couple of key receptions (14 and 10 yards) before White ran in from eight yards out to set the tone.
The Patriots offense was most effective in the no huddle throughout the game.
Rogers, meanwhile, just couldn’t seem to get anything going. It looked like he might in the second half. He ripped off quick 7-play, 76yard scoring drive, with a 51yard pass completion to Marquez Valdes-Scantling the big play in the series to tie the score at 17-all.
But the Patriots defense really rose to the occasion and didn’t allow him to do too much damage.
They held Rodgers and the Packers to just 6-of-13 on third down completions, and made a pivotal fourth down stop from midfield with 3:52 to go, to pretty much ice the game, up by two scores.
Brady and Rodgers numbers were similar, but the Patriots quarterback will take the victory any day.