Patriots' line can't protect Brady

BY TOM ROCK | tom.rock@newsday.com

February 4, 2008

GLENDALE, Ariz. - The wall around Tom Brady came crumbling down.

All season, the Patriots' offensive line had done a remarkable job of keeping Brady upright, allowing him time to connect with his talented receivers and scout the secondary for weaknesses. He was sacked only 21 times during the regular season.

But in Super Bowl XLII, the Giants managed to take Brady down five times. Five times!

"I don't know if he did get rattled," Antonio Pierce said, "but he did have grass stains."

The offensive line not only was unable to shield Brady from the Giants' pressure but could not get any push with the running game. Laurence Maroney was held to 36 yards on 14 carries and the Patriots had only 45 rushing yards as a team.

"They have a great front seven," Patriots center Dan Koppen said. "They have tremendous players up there and they just outplayed us."

The one drive in which the line was able to protect Brady was, not coincidentally, the one that led to the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter. Brady completed 8 of 11 passes on the drive, including a 6-yard TD pass to Randy Moss with 2:42 left, and the defensive linemen who had been swarming around Brady looked gassed.

The Patriots allowed the final sack on their final possession, a 10-yard loss at the hands of Jay Alford, who powered up the middle to put Brady on his back. Brady had time to air it out twice to Moss on the final two throws, but both fell incomplete.

Brady completed 29 of 48 passes for 266 yards and seemed to get hit and knocked down on nearly every one of his dropbacks outside of that go-ahead drive. Several times he tried to hit a receiver on a long ball that came up short because he was unable to step into his throw.

"They have some great pressure schemes, and obviously they have some great pass rushers," Brady said. "Once we got the idea, though, I thought we handled it."

The line took a hit with the loss of starting guard Stephen Neal to a leg injury late in the first half, but the troubles had begun long before that.

Brady was sacked on consecutive plays midway through the second quarter as the Patriots were held to minus-6 yards on their first three possessions of the period. They managed to emerge from the shadow of their own goal line, but the drive was stopped when Justin Tuck sacked Brady and forced a fumble that was recovered by Osi Umenyiora.

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