Old man and the Chiefs
TAMPA BAY AND KANSAS CITY TO FACE OFF IN SUPER BOWL
Tom Brady can’t even lose when he tries to. The G.O.A.T. was nearly Sunday’s goat. He threw interceptions on three consecutive second-half possessions on Sunday at Lambeau Field, seemingly choking the NFC Championship Game away.
But his Tampa Bay Buccaneers still beat the Green Bay Packers, 3126, to advance to Brady’s 10th career Super Bowl.
Tampa Bay will be the first franchise ever to host a Super Bowl on its home field.
Brady, 43, will be just the fourth quarterback ever to start a Super Bowl for multiple teams, following Peyton Manning, Craig Morton and Kurt Warner.
Those three QBs have four Super Bowl titles combined, though. Brady’s six rings already are a record. Now he has a chance at lucky No. 7 at Super Bowl LV on Feb. 7 at Raymond James Stadium.
“It’s been a great journey thus far,” Brady said. “I don’t think about what it means for me. I think about what it means for everyone else.”
He can say it’s a team game all he wants, but this is all about Brady. It’s about the decision he made to leave New England, and going to the Super Bowl in his first season in Tampa while
Bill Belichick and the Patriots floundered without him.
It’s about the Bucs going to the playoffs for the first time since 2007 in Brady’s first year. It’s about Brady being the NFL’s all-time postseason leader in starts (44), wins (33), passing yards (12,248) and touchdown passes (80).
It’s about Brady’s 10-4 record in 14 career conference championship games.
This is also about fortune smiling on Brady, though, when he plays far from his best.
For a time on Sunday in Green Bay, it looked like Brady’s 28-10 lead with 13:54 lead in the third quarter might become as infamous as the Atlanta Falcons’ 28-3 lead on Brady’s Patriots with 8:31 remaining in Super Bowl LI on Feb. 5, 2017.
But just like Brady’s Super Bowl LI win over the Falcons four years ago, just like his Patriots’ Super Bowl XLIX victory over the Seahawks six years ago, coaching gaffes by his opponent opened the door wide for a Brady victory.
The Seahawks’ Pete Carroll threw the ball on the goal line with a chance to beat Brady, and Russell Wilson was picked off by Malcolm Butler.
The Falcons’ Dan Quinn and Kyle Shanahan abandoned their run game and short-circuited, feeding Brady’s greatest comeback in Super Bowl history.
And on Sunday, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur and defensive coordinator Mike Pettine committed a couple of all-time blunders.
Pettine played the final play of the first half with a single high safety and an extra defender in the box, guarding against a short completion to set up a field goal. Brady threw a 39-yard touchdown pass over top to Scotty Miller for a 21-10 Buccaneers halftime lead. Pettine’s strategy was so poor, it could have made former Jets defensive coordinator Gregg Williams blush. Williams unforgettably called a Cover-Zero blitz on the final play of a last-second loss to the Raiders
this season, a deep Derek Carr TD pass to Henry Ruggs III. Williams was fired the next day for the call.
But LaFleur’s fourth-quarter decision to kick a field goal stands alone.
LaFleur settled for three points on 4th and goal from the 8-yard line, down 31-23, with 2:09 remaining. He decided, with a chance to tie the game with one of the best quarterbacks of all-time running his offense, to kick a field goal and give the ball back to Brady.
Granted, the Packers’ defense had intercepted Brady three times in the second half, twice by second-team AllPro corner Jaire Alexander. Alexander also had blanket coverage on Adrian Amos’ picks.
Rodgers even made a mistake himself on third down, throwing an incompletion into coverage when he appeared to have room to run for the end zone toward the right pylon.
But LaFleur took the ball and the game out of his quarterback’s and his offense’s hands.
The officials’ pass interference whistle against Packers corner Kevin King that basically ended the game was a horrendous call, the complete opposite of how the rest of the game had been adjudged.
But the Packers were only in that position because LaFleur had put them in it.
It’s not like Brady didn’t do his part early. He most certainly did.
He completed 3-of-5 passes for 56 yards on a nine play, 66-yard game-opening touchdown drive.
He had thrown his third TD pass of the game 56 seconds into the third quarter. He finished with 280 yards through the air.
But the truth is, Brady played poorly enough to lose most games and got out with a victory anyway, thanks to a strong pass rush led by former Giant Jason Pierre-Paul (two sacks) and edge rusher Shaq Barrett (three sacks).
Everything’s coming up Brady these days. It’s like he can do no wrong.
Brady even continued flaunting the NFL’s COVID-19 protocols postgame with no consequences. He appeared to be the only one in a group of about 80 Bucs players, coaches and staffers without a mask on.
But hey, if you don’t know by now, the NFL is Brady’s world. We’re all just living in it.