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Pats' final drive a microcosm of season Posted: Monday February 04, 2002 12:11 AMUpdated: Monday February 04, 2002 1:54 AM
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The New England Patriots never doubted they would try to win the Super Bowl in regulation. And they had little doubt they would succeed. With 1:21 left in the fourth quarter and the score tied at 17, New England started from its own 17-yard line without any timeouts and played aggressively when it could have played for overtime and run out the clock. "We still had time on the clock," cornerback Otis Smith said. "Why would we do that?" Why indeed? With cool, clutch Tom Brady at quarterback and a history of coming through under pressure, the Patriots went for it and beat the St. Louis Rams 20-17 on Adam Vinatieri's 48-yard field goal as time expired Sunday. "Our goal was to move the ball down the field to get into field-goal range," Brady said. "I was planning to go out there and win the game." The drive started with a simple 5-yard pass from Brady to J.R. Redmond and ended with the biggest kick in team history. It also mirrored their amazing season, starting quietly and ending with a resounding victory. "We seized the opportunity that we had," Brady said. "We were in the Super Bowl with the opportunity to be world champions. We went out and put it together." It's not the first time Brady directed a final drive to win a game. "We were in that situation in the Oakland game," running back Antowain Smith said, "so I had confidence that we could go out there and get that done." Two weeks earlier in a 16-13 overtime playoff win against Oakland, Brady drove the Patriots in the snow to set up Vinatieri's 45-yard, game-tying field goal with 27 seconds left in the fourth quarter. In overtime, the Raiders never got the ball as Brady completed all eight of his passes to set up Vinatieri's 23-yard field goal. Brady wasn't quite perfect Sunday, but he wasn't far off as the Patriots, who went 5-11 last season and started this season at 0-2, finished with nine consecutive wins. Operating entirely from the shotgun, he was 5-for-8 for 53 yards on the winning march. Two of the incompletions were spikes to stop the clock. Brady found Redmond for completions of 5 and 8 yards for a first down at the New England 30. Then Brady spiked the ball with 41 seconds to go. On the next play, Redmond caught a pass for 11 yards and ran out of bounds. After an incompletion, Brady made his biggest play of the drive. He hit Troy Brown, whose 101 catches this season are a team record, for 26 yards for a first down at the 36. Brown went out of bounds with 21 seconds left. Vinatieri had been connecting from 59 yards in pregame warmups, but head coach Bill Belichick knew there was time for one more play before a kick. "We were trying to get one more completion and a few more yards," Belichick said. Brady coolly dropped back and threw a 6-yarder to Jermaine Wiggins at the 30. Then Brady calmly went to the line and spiked the ball. Seven seconds and one kick left. Vinatieri connected. Brady and Drew Bledsoe, the quarterback he replaced late in the second game, smiled broadly as they hugged. "It was just awesome," Brady said. "Everybody got it done. Troy made some big catches." That never would have happened had the Patriots sat on the ball to get into overtime. "If things hadn't worked out well in the drive we would have just ran out the clock and gone into overtime," Belichick said
Brady made sure it went just fine.
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