The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HOW BRADY GOT BUCS TO THE SUPER BOWL
Brady throws for 3 TDS in Bucs’ victory, heads to 10th Super Bowl.
GREEN BAY, WIS. — Tom Brady, along with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ road magic, has them heading home to the Super Bowl, the first team to play in one on their home field.
Brady owns six Super Bowl rings with New England and now heads to his 10th NFL championship game with his new team. With help from a stifling pass rush and a curious late call on fourth-and-goal by the Packers, Brady and the Bucs beat topseeded Green Bay 31-26 for the NFC title Sunday.
“It’s great to get another road win, and now we got a home game,” said Brady, who went 20 of 36 for 280 yards with three touchdowns. “Who’d ever thought a home Super Bowl for us? But we did it.”
The Bucs (14-5) earned their
franchise-record eighth consecutive road victory to reach the Super Bowl for the first time since their 2002 championship season.
They were helped by a strange decision by Packers coach Matt Lafleur with just over two minutes remaining and trailing by eight points. On fourth-andgoal, he elected to kick a field goal to get within five. Tampa Bay then ran out the clock on the Packers (14-4).
The Bucs will face either the Kansas City Chiefs or Buffalo Bills at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium on Feb. 7.
“We’re coming home to win,” said Bucs coach Bruce Arians, who began his coaching career in 1975 at Texas Tech and will make his first trip to the Super Bowl as a head coach.
Green Bay trailed 31-23 and hadfirst-and-goal from the 8 in the last few minutes. But after Aaron Rodgers threw three straight incompletions, the Packers settled for Mason Crosby’s 26-yard field goal with 2:05 left.
The Packers had all three timeouts left and were hoping their defense could force a punt. The Bucs foiled that plan, draining the rest of the clock, helped by a pass interference penalty against Kevin King.
With Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-paul combin- ing for five sacks, Tampa Bay snapped Green Bay’s seven-game winning streak. The Packers lost in the NFC championship game for the fourth time in the last seven seasons. Green Bay hasn’t reached the Super Bowl since its 2010 championship season.
Rodgers went 33 of 48 for 346 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, but fell to 1-4 in conference championship games as a starting quarterback.
It’s been quite a ride for Brady and the Bucs. Brady moved to Tampa as a free agent and brought tight end Rob Gronkowski out of retirement to join him. But with limited practice time with his new teammates because of coronavirus protocols, the Bucs didn’t get rolling until after their bye week.
They took command in the middle portion of the game.
Green Bay trailed 14-10 and had the ball just before half- time until Sean Murphy-bun- ting picked off Rodgers at the Tampa Bay 49-yard line with 28 seconds remaining. After converting a fourthand-4, Tampa Bay was at Green Bay’s 39 with 8 sec- onds remaining. The Bucs passed up a long field-goal attempt, and Brady found Scotty Miller down the left sideline for a 39-yard touchdown catch with just 1 sec- ond remaining.
“We didn’t come here to not take chances to win the game,” Arians said. “Love the play we had. Got a great matchup and got a TD. That was huge.”
The Bucs built a 28-10 lead early in the third quarter thanks to Brady’s third touchdown pass.
The Packers rallied as Brady threw interceptions on three straight drives. Green Bay cut the lead to 28-23 late in the third quarter on Rodgers’ touchdown passes to Robert Tonyan and Davante Adams.