Tom Brady falls just short in Super Bowl shootout with Nick Foles

MINNEAPOLIS — Most nights, Tom Brady is on the winning end of these sorts of high-octane passing duels. On Sunday against the Eagles and Nick Foles, he came up just short.



The Patriots quarterback set a new Super Bowl record with 505 passing yards, while going 28-for-48 and adding three touchdowns for good measure. But in the end, it will be a strip-sack that will haunt him all offseason.

Trailing 38-33 with just over two minutes to go, the New England quarterback appeared poised to complete another Super Bowl comeback. He and the Patriots had the ball on their own 33, but he was sacked by Philly’s Brandon Graham and lost control of the football. Eagles defensive end Derek Barnett recovered on the New England 31-yard line. Philadelphia subsequently added a field goal to make it 41-33, and a late Patriots’ drive fell just short when a Brady pass for Rob Gronkowski in the end zone was just off the mark at the buzzer.

“We had a good chance there and they made a good play,” lamented Brady when asked what happened down the stretch. “They made a lot of good plays (Sunday). I thought we were competitive, but we just obviously didn’t get the job done.

“I’d obviously love to not have it stripped from me, so I was holding the ball trying to get it downfield,” he said when asked about the key play. “Those guys had a good rush and got in there and made a good play. They’ve been doing it all year. I knew they had a good rush. They made a good play. They made a good play at the right time.”

The strip sack aside, Brady was one of the best and most consistent parts of the Patriots’ offense in the loss. He had five pass plays of 28 yards or more, and competed passes to seven different players. Three different receivers had at least 100 receiving yards, including Danny Amendola (eight catches for 152 yards), Chris Hogan (six catches, 128 yards, 1 TD) and Gronkowski (nine catches, 116 yards, 2 TDs).

“Tom’s a legend,” Gronkowski said of Brady. “Fighting all day long, throwing 500 yards, every touchdown. We keep on fighting until the end, and we did. We went to all 60 minutes, but it wasn’t enough.”

Brady who said he doesn’t see “why (he) wouldn’t be back” in 2018, said that it was just a matter of making a few plays.

“We had our opportunities, to, I thought, take control. We just didn’t,” he said. “We did a great job in the first half. We moved the ball a lot, didn’t score a lot of points. We did a better job in the second half (and) had a chance. Those guys made a play.

“No one is going to feel sorry for us,” he added. “We’ll evaluate like we always do. I’m sure everyone is pretty tired after a long year. That’s football.”