FOXBORO — Two years in the past, Tom Brady trotted out of the guests tunnel at Gillette Stadium in enemy colours.
The Foxboro sky wept.
Rain fell all through a Buccaneers win that Brady, after all, captained in dramatic comeback style. Later that night time, having wiped away the rain, however nonetheless soaked within the glory of his victory, he teased a doable return.
“I don’t know what the future holds,” Brady informed reporters. “(There) obviously could be an opportunity to come back here. We’ll see. … I’ll be up here quite a bit when it’s all said and done.”
On Sunday afternoon, Brady stored his promise. As the pregame clock wound beneath 10 minutes left till the Patriots’ season opener, he reappeared to thunderous applause. The Foxboro sky wept once more.
These had been tears of pleasure.
For the primary time in three and a half years, Brady wore Patriots colours publicly and with delight. He beamed from the highest of the stadium’s new 22-story lighthouse, pumping his magic proper arm and waving to the raucous crowd under. Fans mirrored his ardour, squeezing each breath from their lungs and ounce of delight from their soccer souls to cheer for him once more.
Then Brady rang a bell in a brand new pregame custom; maybe a beacon of hope to start out the Patriots’ fourth season with out him.
Was Brady ringing in a brand new period?
Not so quick.
Before the primary quarter ended, the Pats puked throughout themselves, fumbling, firing a pick-six and tossing any sense of momentum straight into the trash. They additionally dedicated defensive penalties that wiped away a sack and a blown Eagles snap. Not 13 minutes had handed, and the rating learn: Eagles 16, Patriots 0.
The protection’s again bore a well-known ache from carrying the crew prefer it has ever since Brady walked out the door. It fought anyway.
The Pats protection yielded 23 yards via halftime, whereas new offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien lastly blended the suitable elements and cooked up two landing drives. The sky cleared, and stadium boo birds sang a brand new tune because the Patriots retreated into their locker room. Then got here the chants.
“Bra-dy! Bra-dy! Bra-dy!”
Brady sprinted down the house sideline in his outdated No. 12 jersey, pumped his fist once more and launched a battle cry within the face of the group. He jogged close to the tunnel he as soon as left as a Buccaneer and veered again towards a makeshift stage on the reverse finish of the sphere. Minutes later, after a glowing deal with from Robert Kraft and the beginning of his personal speech, Brady gave voice to the understated reality of his legacy.
“There’s nothing significant in life that can be accomplished as an individual,” he mentioned. “It’s always about the team.”
How rapidly we neglect.
Countless teammates and coaches dotted Brady’s twenty years of excellence with their very own greatness. Adam Vinatieri’s game-winning area targets, Bill Belichick’s sport plans that thwarted Peyton Manning, Patrick Mahomes and The Greatest Show on Turf and legacy-defining stops by Ty Law to Malcolm Butler and Dont’a Hightower.
Brady by no means captured the Lombardi Trophy alone. He by no means took a hand-off, threw a block, made a sort out, snatched an interception or held a few the NFL’s highest-scoring offenses to twenty mixed factors in two Super Bowls. He mastered the mundane and the magnificent of his place equally, simply because the Patriots appeared to for 20 years.
It wasn’t simply that Brady yearly ranked among the many league leaders in game-winning drives, but additionally effectivity metrics and turnover avoidance. It wasn’t simply that the Patriots often ranked among the many NFL’s finest in turnover margin and explosive performs, however they took fewer penalties than their opponents and tackled higher than them, too.
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It was collectively, with a clear, constant cohesion that outlined them as a lot as their movie star quarterback and coach did, that the Brady-era Patriots gained.
And it was collectively, the Pats fell Sunday; a mediocre crew that wasn’t overmatched by the reigning NFC champions, however merely that didn’t deal with sufficient of the magnificent and mundane to beat them. Though, there have been moments.
Mac Jones, dealing with a 16-0 deficit, orchestrated a 2-minute drill earlier than halftime. Trailing by 5 late within the fourth quarter, security Jabrill Peppers popped a fumble from Eagle quarterback Jalen Hurts to kill one drive. Moments later, rookie nook Christian Gonzalez batted a fourth-down move to cease the following collection.
But on his ultimate drive, Jones took a brutal second-down sack contained in the crimson zone. Two snaps later, he fired an obvious fourth-down completion to rookie Kayshon Boutte with 25 seconds left. But the catch didn’t survive assessment.
Boutte had failed to remain inbounds alongside the left sideline, a failure to grasp time and house within the clutch second. The Patriots misplaced.
In all, they took seven penalties. They threw a pick-six and misplaced a fumble. They got here inside yards of clinching an upset on two potential game-winning drives within the fourth quarter and failed to complete.
This is who the Patriots have been and proceed to be with out Brady.
And this, not less than for one sport, within the starkest doable distinction between the franchise then and now, is their quarterback.
“I feel like in the most critical times,” Jones admitted Sunday, “I played my worst.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com