There was no Brady miracle this time
Foles pulled off the improbable victory
MINNEAPOLIS – It was right there to be written.
Tom Brady leads another comeback. The Patriots win another Super Bowl. Not this time, Tom.
New England’s big chance to win a sixth Lombardi Trophy appeared to be in good hands with the iconic quarterback beginning a drive with just less than 2½ minutes on the clock.
But Brandon Graham rewrote any script that suggested another Patriots victory authored by Brady. The Eagles defensive end crashed into Brady, forcing the pop-up fumble that rookie Derek Barnett snagged and, like that, it was pretty much over.
Brady passed for a Super Bowl-record 505 yards, but he plays for rings, not records.
There will be a Ring No. 6. Not now. Instead, two of the most indelible Brady images from the 41-33 setback against the Eagles in Super Bowl LII are of the magical quarterback losing the football.
Long before the fumble, there was the dropped pass.
Yes, Brady lost the football in crunchtime. And he couldn’t hang onto it in the first half when the Patriots called what could have been a killer of a trick play.
It went like this: On third-and-5 from the Eagles’ 35-yard line, early in the second quarter, soon-to-be-departed Ocoordinator Josh McDaniels dialed up a reverse flea-flicker that set up Danny Amendola to lob a pass to Brady in the right flat.
Brady was so wide open you’d think they forgot to cover him. Or just never thought of it. It’s not every day that Brady runs routes like a receiver. But he muffed the perfect play, which could have netted much more than a first down.
They went for it on fourth down, but Brady’s pass to Rob Gronkowski was broken up.
Turns out that the sequence of squandered opportunity would be used against Bill Belichick & Co. in a big way — at least when it came to the optics. And the results.
See, the Eagles went for it on fourth down, too, later in the quarter.
And Doug Pederson also had a pass to his quarterback, Nick Foles, stashed away in his playbook.
The Eagles hit on their trick play, right before the half, when rookie running back Corey Clement took a direct snap, flipped the ball to tight end Trey Burton, who found the eventual Super Bowl MVP in the corner of the end zone for a 1-yard TD.
Gutsy call by Pederson. But it was even more stunning because it was pretty much a back-at-you type of play. Pederson got the best of Belichick. And Foles got the best of Brady.
That sounds weird enough. For all of the times we’ve seen Brady excel on the big stage, this time the football gods were against him. On Saturday, the 40year old was named the NFL’s regularseason MVP for the third time in his career. But on Sunday night, he was outdueled by a backup.
The night ended with one last desperate heave to the end zone for a Hail Mary.
But there was no miracle for Brady this time. Like his quest for another ring, the pass fell incomplete.