Same Old Tom Brady, Just in Time

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- A good magician never reveals his secrets, so we're never going to know how Tom Brady pulled off this latest trick. How could he look so rusty and timid for 55 minutes, and so sharp and confident for the final five? How did he look up at a stadium full of 68,756 fans so spitting mad they were booing the cheerleaders and feel so certain he could send them all home happy, with a 25-24 comeback win for the ages? How did he and the Patriots survive this Monday night land mine without the deep passing game? Without, really, any help from their defense?

We have some of these answers, and for others we'll just have to wonder, and draw our own conclusions. In the end, Brady and the Patriots sidestepped an inexcusable season-opening upset because the Bills choked -- and because, just before it got too late, their quarterback turned from a rag-armed pumpkin back into Tom Brady.

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That first part? Oh yeah. Make no mistake about it. The Bills coughed this baby up as if it were the hairball from hell. Buffalo had this game won every way it could. Its offense, the laughingstock of August, had moved the ball efficiently all night against a defensive front that's going to be a problem for New England all year. With 5:32 left on the clock, Trent Edwards hit running back Fred Jackson with a 10-yard touchdown pass and the Bills were up 24-13. The Pats had Brady, sure, but they didn't have time. Didn't look that way, at least.

"We had the game. We had it," Bills cornerback Terrence McGee said. "I mean, we were going to do it."

Even after New England's ensuing drive -- a bloodlessly efficient three minutes and 26 seconds, in which Brady threw 11 passes, completed nine of them and capped things with an 18-yard touchdown strike to tight end Benjamin Watson, the Bills still had reason to believe they had this -- that they were really going to beat the Patriots for the first time in six years. Brady's two-point conversion attempt failed. Buffalo led by five with 2:10 left. All they had to do was secure the kickoff, pick up a couple of first downs and this one was all theirs.

And that's when they blew it.


The Patriots made the surprise decision to kick the ball deep, rather than onside it. And Buffalo return man Leodis McKelvin made the far more surprising decision, upon fielding the ball in the end zone, to try and return it, rather than take a knee and a touchback.

"When I caught the ball, I was thinking in my head, 'Do I have two feet (in the end zone)?' " McKelvin explained. "So I was worried if I downed it, we might get a safety or something. So I ran it out."

Ran pretty well, actually. Out past the 30-yard line, where Pats safety Brandon Meriweather hit him, Pierre Woods stripped the ball out of his hands and kicker Stephen Gostkowski recovered to give the Patriots possession -- and new life -- at the Buffalo 31.

"It was chaos, man," Woods said. "I mean, Gostkowski recovered it. I can't say enough about the kicker, man. He got the ball back for the offense."

Which is where the Patriots want it -- in Tom Brady's hands. Sure, he hadn't looked like 2007 Tom Brady all night. McGee, the Buffalo defensive back, said the Bills were "real surprised (the Patriots) weren't trying any deep throws," and there was some speculation (though McGee wouldn't bite) that Brady's shoulder was still sore from the Albert Haynesworth hit he took in the preseason. If that's true, the Patriots aren't about to admit it.

"I don't critique what Tom does," running back Kevin Faulk said.

And why would they? Once the miracle fumble put the ball back in Superman's hands, he did what he always does -- he made the throws he had to make. And he won the game.

Three passes -- one to Randy Moss, one to Wes Welker, and one more in the end zone again to Watson, and the Pats were up 25-24. Gillette Stadium was a churning bowl of euphoria chowder. The Bills, even with 50 seconds left on the clock and needing only to get to field-goal range, were beaten. For the 12th time in a row, incidentally, by the Patriots.

"It stings a little bit more because of the fact that it was the Patriots again," McGee said. "But you know Brady, he's not going to give up."

Brady was happy about the win, of course. But he acknowledged that his team could have played a better game, and he had the look of a kid who knew he'd just gotten away with something.

"Not the way we drew it up," Brady said. "But I'll take it."

A team for which perfection is the only goal was right on the brink of 0-1 -- in the division, no less. But Brady, with some help from the Bills, pulled them back from the brink.

"It's a great feeling," left tackle Matt Light said, "to have that aspect of our game back."

That's right. The Patriots feel, once again, like no matter what happens, Brady can save them. If they or the rest of the NFL needed any proof, Brady provided it Monday night.

Just in the nick of time.