Tom Brady's heroic night includes Patriots' trickery in win over Ravens

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The little boy ran over to his dad, greeted with a kiss and a crushing hug, grinning and squirming as he was wrapped up.

Tom Brady grinned too, grabbing a New England Patriots ski hat by his locker and fitting it around his 4-year-old son's head. The boy tried to wriggle free, and Brady just wouldn't let go.

Ben Brady might be too young to remember what his dad did here on Saturday, too young to comprehend what makes his father a football legend and why. But Brady will always remember how dearly he had to hold on to the moment he lost and then suddenly found again.

"You never know how these games are gonna go," Brady said after the Patriots' 35-31 playoff win over the Baltimore Ravens, the meaning of that statement buried behind that famous smile. He had to throw 50 passes on Saturday, the last one being a game-winning touchdown to save the season against a desperate and dogged Ravens team. Even that wasn't enough. Julian Edelman had to throw a touchdown pass as well. Rob Gronkowski had to bat down a would-be touchdown pass. The wide receiver had to play quarterback; the tight end had to play safety.

Bill Belichick had to concoct some special gridiron alchemy too, with four offensive linemen playing on certain downs and a running back serving as an ineligible fifth. The Patriots, a team that used to roar through the postseason as a budding dynasty, required every possible advantage they could grab simply to stay in a game in which they fell behind by 14 points, not once but twice.

The story of the Patriots over the past several years has been that of a glacial wearing away, like the steps of a museum slowly becoming concave underneath weight and weather. Many of the stars of the past retired or were let go or sent away, leaving Brady and a couple of stalwarts and plenty of new faces with unproven backgrounds. On Saturday, Brady's rushing stats told a lot about the enormous responsibility placed on his shoulders in his late career. He had six attempts, and his actual running backs had a combined seven. On his very first pass of the evening, Brady had nearly as many yards (11) as his team would have rushing yards the rest of the night (14). Brady's rushing touchdown, which closed an early deficit to 14-7 and began to turn the momentum of the game, tied him for the lead in franchise history in that category with five: a slow sixth-round pick carving out as many points on the ground as the most productive running back (Curtis Martin) ever to wear the uniform.

But as always the Pats would win on the strength of Brady's arm – his long seam routes to Gronkowski and his quick outs to Edelman or Shane Vereen. He threw for 367 yards, which would be an earthquake of a playoff performance for almost any other quarterback, but just enough to keep it close for Brady against a team that knew it could beat him. Brady needed every one of his 50 throws, the most memorable being the one he threw backward.

The Patriots were down 28-21 in the third quarter, and it didn't look like there was anything they could do to outscore Joe Flacco and a freight train of a Ravens offense. Brady took a snap at his own 49 yard-line, wheeled to his left, and fired to Edelman. The former Kent State quarterback then lofted a long pass over the Ravens secondary.

"I'm not gonna lie," Edelman would later say. "I thought I overthrew him."

Danny Amendola bolted under the rainbow and hauled it in, galloping into the end zone to tie the game. While the entire stadium went bonkers, Patriots cornerback Brandon Browner smiled knowingly. He's had to defend that play in practice, and he was torched too.

"My man was Julian," Browner explained at his locker. "I saw the screen so I tried to jump it. I see the block and I tried to beat it and then I turn around and Danny's running."

On Saturday, that uh-oh moment landed on Ravens cornerback Rashaan Melvin, who could only turn and run like Browner did.

"They bit on it," Brady said. "Julian threw a dime. Pretty sweet play, and we needed it."

They did need it. They needed it all on Saturday. In the end, though, they needed Brady to make one last comeback – one last answer to a masterful four-touchdown Flacco performance.

The Patriots got the ball at their own 26-yard line, down four points, with a little more than 10 minutes left. Brady led a 10-play drive, with nine passes and one rushing attempt, which of course he ran himself. He moved his team all 74 yards in 5:04, closing with a 23-yard pass to Brandon LaFell for the last of nine total touchdowns in the game. That 50th throw of the night gave him his 46th touchdown pass in the playoffs, surpassing his idol Joe Montana for the most in NFL history.

The Patriots still needed more: a late Flacco bomb was picked off in the end zone by second-year defensive back Duron Harmon; and yet another long ball from Flacco had to get batted down, with Gronkowski playing defense, as time expired.

"They pulled out every trick play in the book," said Ravens defensive end Chris Canty. "They threw a lot of different formations at us, guys eligible, guys ineligible. They did a lot of things to keep us on our heels."

But no quarterback can keep a defense on its heels like Brady, who seemed both imperturbable and rattled on Saturday. There were the many times he stood in the pocket and threw darts with the pass rush square in his face. There was also the time, however, when he made a "terrible play," throwing a momentum-killing interception that turned into seven Baltimore points right before halftime and left him with his head in his hands on the bench. Even more, there was also the time he blew up at a referee in a display that would have gotten a lot of other players flagged.

So it was all the more poignant during what he thought would be the very end, when Brady came out to down the ball three times in the victory formation. Most quarterbacks take the snap and drop a knee rapidly, chucking the ball to the referee to line up again. Brady took the ball, lowered his right knee very slowly, then placed the ball deliberately onto the turf before bowing his head for a long moment. In the din of the stadium, it looked like an old man's prayer in an empty church.

"It's awesome," Browner marveled after the game. "He plays like that week in and week out. He's never down. He is what a champion is supposed to be like."

The Patriots needed everything on Saturday, and Tom Brady was everything. He was the screaming firebrand, the cool marksman, the rickety rusher and the clutch passer. He is what we all recognize and yet something completely new. He is a wise dad playing a boy's game, grinning like a rookie and yet holding on tight to every waning second.