Patriots, Eagles advance to set up Super matchup
Tom Brady engineers another Patriots comeback to beat the Jaguars and the Eagles dominate the Vikings.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are going back to the Super Bowl, just as we all expected.
Or should have, anyway.
A throwing hand that was sliced open four days ago or a hole in the fourth quarter, it doesn’t matter. Time and time again, Brady has proved he’s going to find a way to overcome whatever obstacles are in his way.
How could anyone have thought this week, this game, would have any other outcome?
His status questionable since Wednesday because of a mysterious injury — are there any other kind in New England? — to his right hand, Brady not only played but also staged one of his patented fourth-quarter comebacks, throwing for two touchdowns to send the Patriots to the Super Bowl for the second consecutive season and third time in four years.
“The competitive drive, the sense of urgency that he has — for him to be able to get into this mode, this warrior mode, and go out there and have the game that he had after everything that happened this week, it shows how he can block out the noise and focus on what he has to do,” backup quarterback Brian Hoyer said after the 24-20 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
For much of the week, the nation was transfixed by Brady’s right hand. He’d injured it in practice, the Patriots acknowledged, saying little beyond that and the daily update of his practice status required by the NFL for the injury report.
“We’re not talking about open heart surgery,” coach Bill Belichick said, glowering.
Brady played right along, wearing gloves on both hands during the brief periods when practice was open and
when he finally met with the media Friday. Even when he arrived for Sunday’s game, he kept his right hand jammed deep in his pockets and out of sights — a departure, Brady watchers were quick to note, from his usual bag-in-righthand stroll.
When a cameraman, trying to zoom in on the hand, got a little too close as Brady took the field for pregame warmups, he yelled an expletive and told him to back off.
But as in all totalitarian societies, details slowly trickled out.
Another player had run into him and opened up a gash on his hand. He’d needed stitches, though how many Brady still won’t say. His status was questionable enough that Hoyer took the majority of reps in practice Thursday and Friday and was under the assumption until Sunday morning that he would be playing.
“I thought out of all the plays, my season can’t end on a handoff. In practice,” Brady said. “We didn’t come this far to end on a handoff.”
He’d rather not have had any kind of bandage, but that wasn’t an option with the stitches in. So he wore a thick piece of black tape between his thumb and forefinger. During warm-ups, he repeatedly flexed his fingers between throws.
“I’d rather not wear it, but I guess that’s kind of arrogant to say with how the game went,” he said. “It does sound arrogant, doesn’t it?”
When you do what Brady does, a little arrogance is allowed.
New England’s first series showed that Brady’s hand was fine, the first play a 5-yard pass to Dion Lewis and the second a 31-yard laser to Brandin Cooks. Four plays later, facing a fourth-and-1 at the Jacksonville 30-yard line, Brady uncorked a 20-yard pass to Danny Amendola.
Oh, there were moments of doubt. Such as when Rob Gronkowski was knocked out of the game with a head-tohead hit by safety Barry Church that was so bad it probably should have resulted in an ejection. And all of the third quarter, as the Jaguars doubled up on the Patriots 20-10.
(Yes, the field goal came in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter. You get the idea.)
But Brady is at his best when he and the Patriots are supposedly dead and buried.
Did you not watch last year’s Super Bowl? Can he ever be counted out after that? He staged that comeback without Gronkowski, too, remember.
“We always have confidence. We really do,” Brady said. “It’s never really over until it’s over with this team.”
Needing to convert a third-and-18 from the New England 25, Brady found Amendola deep down the middle for 21 yards. He followed that with a 31-yarder to Phillip Dorsett — the first time Brady had looked at Dorsett all day, mind you.
After an incompletion, he went back to Amendola for a 14-yard pickup and then the 9-yard score.
Four minutes later, Amendola’s 20yard punt return gave the Patriots the ball at the Jacksonville 30. Five plays later, Brady found Amendola at the very back of the end zone for the go-ahead, 4-yard score. One last defensive stand, and the Patriots were back in their familiar victory formation.
Yeah, Brady was fine. And the modern NFL’s most enduring dynasty is rolling on for at least another two weeks, likely to pick up a sixth Super Bowl title along the way.
As we all expected.