Cool-hand Brady felt bunch of pressure from relentless Giants

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Feb 4, 2008 | by Dennis Georgatos

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Nobody's perfect, not even Tom Brady.

The New England Patriots quarterback was hit and harassed by a relentless New York Giants defense, never allowing him to settle into the cool, precision play that has been his trademark.

The result was a 17-14 loss to the Giants in the Super Bowl . The 18-1 Patriots fell one step short of matching the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only NFL team to finish undefeated .

"It doesn't take anything away from the 18 wins we had. Those were all great," Brady said. But he added, "We lost the most important one."

Brady, who threw an NFL record 50 touchdown passes this season while leading an offense that scored a record 589 points, never was able to find a rhythm against a Giants defense that sacked him five times and hit and hurried him often.

"That was No.1," said Giantsdefensive end Michael Strahan of the importance of pressuring Brady. "There's no quarterback that likes to be on his back all the time when he's trying to throw."

The Giants, who led the league in sacks , held the Patriots high- flying offense to a season low in points.

"They are a very good defensive football team," New England Coach Bill Belichick said. "They made some plays. We made some plays. In the end, they made a couple more than we did."

Asked if he thought Brady's ankle injury was a factor -- Brady missed some practice time last week leading up to the Super Bowl because of a sprain -- Belichick shook his head and said "No."

Brady completed 29 of 48 passes for 266 yards and despite the offensive struggles, it was nearly enough. His 6-yard touchdown pass to Randy Moss with 2:42 remaining gave the Patriots a 14-10 lead.

At that moment, it appeared Brady just might pull out another comeback. He came in with 28 game-winning comebacks in his career, including three previous Super Bowl wins.

But Eli Manning beat him at his own game, leading a drive that ended in his 13-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds remaining.

Brady's last-ditch effort to move the Patriots into range for a field goal attempt was denied in the final moments.

His first pass for Jabar Gaffney fell incomplete. Defensive lineman Jay Alford broke through to sack Brady for a 10-yard loss on the next play. Brady tried to go deep to Moss with his final two passes but Corey Webster and then Gibril Wilson were there to knock them away.

"I was hoping to give those guys a chance at the end, but those defenders were playing pretty far back and they made some great plays," Brady said.

Brady, who earlier this week had chided the Giants' Burress for predicting the Giants would beat the Patriots and hold them to 17 points, said New York deserved credit for stifling their offense.

"They did a few things different," Brady said, referring to the regular-season finale in which New England pulled out a 38-35 win over the Giants. "They mixed it up quite a bit, gave you a bunch of different looks. They just put a lot of pressure on your offensive scheme. At times, we handled it well and at times we didn't."

Brady said loss was a tough one to swallow, but the Patriots gave it everything they had.

"Our team is extremely disappointed," he said. "Coach Belichick is extremely disappointed. It's one thing if I felt we weren't prepared or didn't work hard or give it our all, but we did. We left it all out there."