The 7 Plays From Tom Brady's Super Bowl Wins That Defined Him as a Quarterback
Tom Brady called it quits after 23 years and a career that was undoubtedly the most accomplished in NFL history. We all have our opinions on what made him such a great quarterback. To me, it was the fact that he was the same player in those big moments as he was on any random 2nd down in the first quarter of a less-meaningful Week 3 game. He relied on consistent and repeatable traits that served him well regardless of the situation.
Below, you can see those traits on display in the biggest moments of Brady’s career. These 7 plays were not only critical to the outcome in each of his Super Bowl wins, but they also happened to define who he was as a quarterback.
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Super Bowl XXXVI (Patriots 20, Rams 17)
Before Tom Brady was Tom Brady, he was on a Patriots team in Super Bowl XXXVI that was tied with the Rams and had only 29 seconds remaining on the clock. On this play, the Rams would drop into Tampa-2 zone coverage and rush 3:
The Patriots had an “All-In” concept called, with Troy Brown as the #3 inside receiver:
As Brady dropped back, he would notice middle linebacker London Fletcher opening to the 3-receiver side and climbing the inside vertical seam. That pretty much meant the #2 in-breaking route was dead:
Brady didn’t wait long to move off of that receiver and turn his attention toward Brown. As he looked right to read Fletcher after the snap, that influenced linebacker Tommy Polley to move right toward the 3-receiver side as well. This created a huge window for Brown to run into:
While there wasn’t a ton of pressure, Brady felt the rush coming from his right. As he would go on to do so often throughout his career, he moved within the pocket to give himself time and space to throw, quickly reset his feet, and delivered an accurate pass with ease:
3 plays later, Adam Vinatieri kicked the Patriots to their first of 6 Lombardi Trophies.
Super Bowl XXXVIII (Patriots 32, Panthers 29)
Deja vu all over again as the Patriots were tied at the end of Super Bowl XXXVIII against the Panthers with just 14 seconds remaining. Brady would end up targeting Deion Branch in the slot to his right. To that side of the formation, Carolina was playing 2-man (man coverage underneath with safety help over the top):
Brady saw the coverage, quickly understood that it was designed to take away inside and underneath throws, and then delivered a perfect strike to Branch running a deep out from the slot:
I remember watching this game and thinking, “How could they leave Branch wide open like that?!” The reality was that it only seemed like Branch was wide open on the broadcast angle because Brady threw this pass with such great anticipation. That gave Branch’s defender and the deep safety to his side little opportunity to make a play on the ball.
Below, you can see where Branch was in his route when Brady made his decision to throw and had just started his motion:
It isn’t flashy, but the ability to anticipate is what separates the good from the great quarterbacks. Brady put that ability into action in the biggest of moments here, as he would often throughout his career.