Was this the greatest Patriots comeback of all time? Was this even Tom Brady’s greatest comeback?
We know about all the heroics that went on in the three Super Bowls, but those last-second kicks by Adam Vinatieri prevented overtime. They were not come-from-behind drives.
This, however, was one HELL of a comeback.
After 3 quarters of mediocre play, the Patriots were down a touchdown, 17-10. This was not looking good. Tom Brady had one interception returned for a touchdown early in the game, and the Bills offense seemed to have its way with the Pats defense. The Pats managed to limit the amount of yards the Bills had, though, and they managed to force 4 punts.
The real trouble the Pats had was with their offense. The pick-6 that Tom Brady threw added to the total 17 points the Pats defense gave up. There were two fourth down plays, and both failed to convert the first down. There were 5 stalled drives, two of which resulted in the aforementioned turnover on downs, one punt, and the other two resulted in field goal attempts, one of which was missed.
Combine that with the turnover and the Patriots were quite behind.
With 5:38 left on the clock in the 4th quarter, the Bills scored their last points of the game, to take the lead 24-13. Then “The Comeback” happened.
Tom Brady led the team on a masterful drive down the field, going 9-for-11, finishing the drive with a 18 yard bullet pass to Ben Watson down the middle of the field for their first touchdown of the second half.
With the score 24-19, the Pats wisely went for two points, but failed to convert, leaving them greater then 3 points behind, and forcing the Patriots to score a touchdown to escape defeat.
In a somewhat surprising move, Stephen Gostkowski boomed the ball down 3 yards into the end zone, and the Bills returner, Leodis McKelvin returned the ball out to about the 20 yard line before he was stood up by Brandon Merriweather. At this point the amazing happened: Brandon Merriweather stripped the ball! In a flash, Stephen Gostkowski jumped into the pile of players and emerged with the ball! The Pats were back in business with 1:56 on the clock, and 3 timeouts left, at the Bills 31 yard line.
This was all the time Tom Brady needed, as he connected with Ben Watson yet again with :50 on the clock.
After another missed 2 point conversion attempt, the Bills returned the kickoff to their own 21 yard line. The first play from scrimmage resulted in a 19 yard pass to Terrell Owens, to their own 40 yard line. The Bills then took their 2nd timeout of the half. At this point, the Pats defense stepped up to the plate, and took the game over.
Derrick Burgess tackled Trent Edwards for no gain on 1st down, costing the Bills their last timeout, as they ran 9 seconds off the clock before they made up their mind. On 2nd down, the bills threw and incomplete pass, leaving 24 seconds on the clock.
On third down and 10, the Bills ran their receivers deep, but the Pats pressure was too much, and Trent Edwards was sacked for a loss of ten yards.
The Bills managed to get the snap off just in time to complete a short pass up the middle, but they didn’t advance far after trying to lateral a few times. The Patriots had completed their comeback.
Obviously the play of the game was the kick return that the Bills fumbled, and it was an amazing special teams play, but the ability for Tom Brady and the offense to fight through their ‘funk’ was refreshing to see. They managed to run their two-minute drill to perfection, and managed to do in 5 minutes what had eluded them all game.
All told this was an amazing victory for our local boys, and we look forward to the match up next week against the Jets. Hopefully Jerod Mayo’s knee injury isn’t season-ending, as he did not come back after his injury early in the game. I’m expecting the worst, but hoping for the best.
We shall see. Jets fans, you are going to be sorry.