It’s pretty rare to see any player have the opportunity to play in as many Super Bowls as Tom Brady has, but when he takes the field on Sunday night in Houston against the Falcons, he’s got the opportunity to go out and do something he hasn’t been able to do over the course of his career.
Dominate for four quarters, and put an opponent away.
The Patriots have seen all four of their Super Bowl wins come down to the final seconds, with New England not being able to create enough separation between their opponent in the closing minutes where the game has ever firmly been in their hands.
The same can also be said for their two losses, which also came down to the wire where they couldn’t quite put the game away. Looking back at all six previous match-ups, one area where Brady has faltered has been the fact that he’s yet to throw a first quarter touchdown, the only quarter over that span where he hasn’t connected with a player in the end zone. The Patriots also haven’t scored any first quarter points in each of their last six Super Bowl appearances.
His best span has been the second quarter, where he’s thrown seven touchdowns in six appearances, with the 2007 match-up against the Giants as the only game where he didn’t throw one. It’s also statistically his best quarter, with Brady completing an incredible 75.4% of his passes.
As for the third quarter, while he’s completed 64.9% of his passes over that span, he’s only thrown a total of two touchdown passes and in their last game against the Seahawks, he threw an interception.
But the fourth quarter historically hasn’t been among his best, with 2014’s incredible showing against the Seahawks being the one time he took completely over and dominated, completeing 13-of-15 (87%) and throwing two touchdowns. That obviously ended up being a big key to their victory, and even then, it took a clutch interception by Malcolm Butler to allow them to earn their fourth Lombardi Trophy.
Prior to that, he had only thrown two touchdowns total, while also throwing two interceptions.
With each game coming down to the wire in past years, including each of their two losses, Sunday night against Atlanta is now Brady’s time to step up and make a huge statement. Given what’s happened over the last year plus, along with what’s going on for him personally, it would be great for him to go out and channel it all into a four-quarter complete performance. The fact they’ve won four Super Bowls is obviously a great thing, but he’s never been able to go out there and complete a game where the outcome was never in question.
Brady needs to leave no doubt tonight and add one of those to his legacy, and Sunday’s showdown with Atlanta would be the perfect time for him to do just that.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
