Defense merits credit too
It’s not just Brady powering late-game heroics
The Patriots’ come- back win over the Steelers on Sunday came after one of the most improbable se- quences of football that you will ever see. A touchdown called back on a technicality and then an interception two plays later on a fake spike that never really came to fruition.
Some may chalk up the Patriots’ win to luck, but victories like that have come far too often for the Patriots in recent seasons to continuously call it luck.
In fact, since 2001, Tom Brady has orchestrated a league-leading 52 gamewinning drives (in fourth quarter or overtime to put his team ahead for the last time) in similar fashion to his epic on Sunday. In turn, the Patriots defense has only allowed 18 such drives, the fewest in the NFL over that span, including playoffs.
Brady’s end-of-game heroics are well-documented at this point.
He has led a game-winning drive in each of his five Super Bowl victories, while no other quarterback has more than two in the big game. And he has led the Patriots on two game-winning jaunts this season, one on a last-minute touchdown to Brandin Cooks to beat the Texans and the other with Rob Gronkowski catching three passes to take down the Steelers this past week.
However, the Patriots defense often doesn’t get the same credit for holding opposing offenses out of the end zone at the end of close games. Maybe that’s in part because the Patriots’ two Super Bowl losses in the Brady era came after the defense caved at the least opportune time.
Despite those two slipups, the Patriots defense has been among the league’s best in closing out tight games over the last 17 seasons.
To go along with their league-low 18 game-winning drives allowed, the Patriots defense has 23 takeaways in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter while holding a one-score lead, which is the second-most in the NFL since 2001 (Colts, 31).
In recent seasons, Patriots safety Duron Harmon, who caught the deflected pass to effectively end the game against the Steelers on Sunday, has six interceptions in that scenario, which is two more than any other player in the NFL since Harmon entered the league in 2013.
Furthermore, the Patriots defense has only allowed nine touchdowns in the final two minutes when leading by seven or fewer points since 2001, which is tied for the fourth-fewest in the NFL during that span.
Now, the Patriots have held more two-score leads than any other team in the fourth quarter over the last 17 years, but that’s still just nine touchdowns out of 81 drives that fall under that criterion, which produces the third-lowest touchdown rate in the NFL over that span (12.3 percent).
The Patriots’ escape in Pittsburgh will go down in franchise lore just like the Malcolm Butler interception in Super Bowl XLIX or Rodney Harrison’s game-clinching interception in Super Bowl XXXIX, or even the team’s goal-line stand in Indianapolis against Peyton Manning’s Colts in 2003. And plenty of Patriots haters chalk up those wins to luck just like the win over the Steelers on Sunday. But the reality is, although the Patriots got some breaks along the way, their preparation and relentless attitude separate them from other teams when the game is on the line.