Never Sleep on Brady

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I cannot count how many times I have stopped watching a game early and it turns out to be a classic.  I will never forgive myself for turning off the TV in the middle of the second half of the 6 overtime classic between Syracuse and UConn in the Big East tournament a few years back. What I regretted the most about missing that game was because it was not even a bad game at the time I turned it off. I just got tired. Most recent game prior to last night that I got bored with and missed out on was the Georgia vs Auburn football game and that incredible finish.

I am ashamed as a Patriots fan to admit that I turned my TV off last night when the Patriots fell behind 24-0. Let’s be honest though. How many people didn’t? Everything that could go wrong, went wrong the first few possessions of the game for the Pats. Three different guys fumbled on the first three possessions starting with Ridley, then Brady, and then Blount. Each resulting in the Broncos scoring making it 17-0. You cannot start a game worse than that! I managed to keep my cool though. The Patriots had some bad luck plus the weather was bad so I gave my team a pass. Besides it was still in the middle of the first quarter. Way too early to give up. So I continue to watch. Over the next few possessions neither team has much success. I remain optimistic. At least the Patriots defense was starting to settle in. But if they had lost the ball on Edelman’s muffed catch, that would have been it for me. Five plays later the Patriots had to punt it anyways. Next thing you know The Broncos are marching up the field again ending with a ten yard touchdown pass from Manning to Jacob Tamme. At This point I had seen enough. With the score 24-0 (even with 6:10 remaining in just the first half) I was ready to call it.

So I turn off my TV and decide to go to my room early to get some homework done, my mind off the game, and some extra sleep for once. About an hour and a half later I get two texts (literally within a minute of each other) from a friend and my father asking me if I am watching the game still. As soon as I saw the texts I already knew I screwed up. Since I was already on my computer doing some work I quickly opened a new tab to pull up the score on espn.com. Sure enough The Patriots were up 31 to 24 with about six minutes left at the time. I’m feeling terrible at this point that I missed it but excited that I can still watch the ending of the game. So I rush out to the living room only to be crushed  once again. I find my roommate is having a tickle fight with his girlfriend while watching some stupid romantic comedy! My luck! I was almost ready to tell them they had to leave and finish the movie some other time. Maybe I should have but I was soft and let it slide. Full of disappointment I went back to my room, got back on my computer and watched as the little play by play notes on the game refreshed on the espn.com game page.

I was ecstatic that the Patriots won but knowing almost made it worse. I would have rather went to bed not knowing they won and woke up in the morning to find out about it later. Instead I sat there in my room just watching the time go down on the score clicker and reading the play by play as I was tortured by the fact that I was missing out on witnessing the game of the year.

I have to give it the Patriots though. It shows a lot about a team that can fall behind that much and maintain composure and confidence to come back and win. The Defense finally figured it out and Tom Brady was classic Tom Brady throwing for 344 yards, 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. The cold was obviously not a factor for him. Many people feel bad that the game ended because of a fluke play by the Broncos special teams. The way I look at it is that the Patriots had their many fluke plays that almost cost them the game in the beginning, the Bronco’s just came at the end. The game was still a classic regardless. I have learned my lesson though, never sleep on Brady.

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