Brady rallies Patriots
New England QB his old self in beating Bills in throwback game
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Tom Brady doesn’t do mediocre.
That’s not what all those long rehab sessions and months of preparing for his return to the NFL were about. So while Brady’s performance was pedestrian for much of Monday night’s season opener, when the spotlight was at its most intense, he lived up to the advance billing.
It seemed to take forever, though.
A year after being sidelined with torn knee ligaments, Brady resembled a rusty game manager more than the invincible record-setting quarterback who guided the Patriots to a perfect 2007 regular season. Yet, he threw two touchdown passes in the final 2:06 as New England rallied to defeat the Buffalo Bills 25-24 in the throwback game.
“I felt good all night, we were just off,” Brady said. “The plays we needed to make – fourth downs we missed, third downs we missed, two chances in the red area, the interception – those things really get you behind the 8-ball. We recovered with just a few seconds left. Sometimes it happens like that. It’s a pretty special victory.”
Brady needed help in the form of Leodis McKelvin’s fumble on a kickoff return after the Patriots pulled within five points.
Placekicker Stephen Gostkowski, of all people, recovered at the Buffalo 31. Brady needed three plays before hitting Benjamin Watson over the middle for the decisive 16-yard touchdown with 50 seconds to go.
“We have a real competitive locker room; a real competitive team,” Brady said. “When you’re in a situation like we were, it’s when you really have to step it up. It takes every guy on the field to step it up.”
Just 1:16 earlier, he found Watson on a similar play for an 18-yard score. It was vintage Brady.
“Two-minute drives always are fun for a quarterback,” Brady said. “Spread it out, the pass rush gets a little tired, you get a feel for the coverage, you just have to be patient.
“I’m glad it’s over, glad we are moving on, got a win, and we’ll learn from it.”
For much of the game he and the Patriots played conservatively, even passively. Indeed, Buffalo seemed ready to break an 11-game losing streak to New England and win for the first time in Gillette Stadium.
Then came the late fireworks.
“That’s not how we drew it up, but I’ll take it,” Brady said. “We did a lot of things poorly, but we got the win.”
Buffalo did a lot of things well, but unfortunately got a shocking loss.
Trent Edwards outperformed Brady for much of the game and threw for two scores. A 10-yard screen pass TD to Fred Jackson put Buffalo ahead 24-13 with 5:32 to go – even though its new spotlight-grabber, Terrell Owens, barely caused a ripple. Owens had two catches for 46 yards, then refused to speak about it afterward.
When the offense wasn’t doing the damage, defensive end Aaron Schobel was rambling 26 yards with an interception for a first-half touchdown.
“The interception was a really bad play,” Brady said. “You can’t do that. You learn from them, get focused and concentrate on what you have to do.”
Still, these are the Patriots, who have not lost a regular-season game with Brady at quarterback since Dec. 10, 2006.
Chargers 24, Raiders 20
In Oakland, Philip Rivers answered a pair of go-ahead scores by Oakland by leading two touchdown drives, capped by Darren Sproles 5-yard run with 18 seconds left, that gave the Chargers their 12th straight win in this one-sided rivalry.
This might have been the toughest one of the bunch. JaMarcus Russell had given Oakland a 20-17 lead with a 57-yard touchdown pass to rookie Louis Murphy with 2:34 left. But despite having two backup linemen in the game, Rivers calmly led the Chargers down the field for the winning score.
Rivers was 6 of 7 for 79 yards on the winning drive before Sproles silenced the crowd . It marked the Raiders’ 11th straight loss in prime time and perhaps the most painful.
They took a 13-10 lead early in the fourth quarter on a 35-yard field goal by Sebastian Janikowski before Rivers drove the Chargers down and gave them the lead with a 15-yard TD pass to Vincent Jackson.
Then Russell’s fourth-down pass to Murphy looked as if it would provide an emphatic end to a pair of losing streaks. Instead, it was just a footnote to Oakland’s league-worst 73rd loss since the start of the 2003 season.
The Chargers looked overmatched for much of the night against newly acquired Richard Seymour and the Raiders defense.
But the two last drives are the reason why the Chargers gave Rivers a six-year contract extension worth $93 million.