Brady Leads Patriots Past Bills In 4th Quarter Comeback

NFL News - September 15th, 2009 - Written by Scott

The football world has been patiently awaiting the return of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and how he would respond following a year away from football due to his season ending knee injury last year.  His heroic performance in the fourth quarter showed that he is definitely back, as the New England Patriots rallied to beat the Buffalo Bills 24-25.  This game had all the makings of a great showdown, as the Bills revealed their offense featuring Terrell Owens.  After looking mediocre most of the game, Brady led the Patriots on two touchdown scoring drives in the final 2:06 to seal the win.

"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."

After trailing 24-13 to the Bills late in the fourth quarter, Brady found Benjamin Watson from 18 yards out to bring the Patriots within five with just 2:06 left to go in the game.  Their two point conversion attempt failed and the score remained 24-19.  The Patriots then kicked off and what was a questionable decision made by Leodis Mckelvin to bring the ball out of the end zone instead of taking a touch back, turned out to be a bad one as he fumbled on their own 31 yard line and the Patriots recovered the ball.  It was then that Brady found Watson once again form 16 yards out for the go ahWead touchdown with just :50 left in the game.  It appeared as though the Patriots were playing rather conservatively throughout the game as Brady never looked to throw the ball deep and miscued in some crucial third down attempts.  However, he responded when it counted.  Wide receiver Randy Moss, who had 12 catches for 141 yards, feels that the long absence by Brady had nothing to do with their lack luster performance.

"It has nothing to do with his layoff," Moss said. "I think it's just first-game jitters. I'm not making an excuse, we just had to settle down and get to playing football the way we know how."

The Bills out played the Patriots for most of the game and so did Buffalo quarterback Trent Edwards who threw two touchdown passes, with one of these putting the Bills ahead 24-13 with 5:32 left to go.  Their play maker at receiver, Owens, was limited on Monday night after catching only 2 passes for 46 yards. 

In the end, the Patriots showed that when their backs are against the wall that they have the players, especially in Brady, that can overcome any adversity.  The Patriots continue their regular season winning streak with Brady at quarterback which dates back to their last loss on December 10, 2006.

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