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January 28, 2008

Monday Morning in Phoenix

PHOENIX -- It was raining here Sunday night when my direct (but still late) Southwest Airlines flight finally landed.

The Patriots arrived earlier, with QB Tom Brady, not surprisingly, the focus of media attention.

In what was even less of a surprise, he said he'd play Sunday. Gee, what a shock.

What did surprise Brady was the weather.

"I guess we must have brought that crappy weather with us from Foxboro," he said. "Oh, well, light snow there, some rain here."

No rain today, though. The sun is shining and the temperatures are Spring-like, rather than desert-like, expected to be in the low 60s.

The plane from Providence had several media members aboard. In addition to Journal colleague Robert Lee, former ProJo football writer Tom Curran, who now covers the NFL for NBC Sports' website, was aboard, along with former Patriots quarterback Scott Zolak, who now does a radio show for 790 The Score.

You know the Super Bowl is in town when you arrive at your hotel (in my case, the Hyatt Regency in downtown Phoenix, across the street from the convention center, which is media headquarters for Super Bowl XLII) and the entrance is flanked by pictures of Brady and Giants defensive end Michael Strahan that are several stories high.

Then you get to your room, turn on the TV, and the NFL Network is showing Super Bowl XXXVIII, in which the Patriots edged Carolina, 32-29. That game featured a fabulous fourth quarter, which began with New England holding a 21-10 lead and then turned a wild shootout, with both teams moving up and down the field

The Panthers closed to 21-16 on a 33-yard TD run by DeShaun Foster with 12:39 remaining. Carolina tried for a two-point conversion that failed. The Patriots came right back with a drive that reached the Carolina 9, where Brady threw an interception in the end zone.

That pick proved even more costly when, on 3rd down from the Panthers' 15, Jake Delhomme connected with Muhsin Muhammad on a Super Bowl-record, 85-yard TD pass that gave Carolina (which again failed to convert a 2-point conversion attempt) a 22-21 lead with 6:53 to go.

The Patriots responded with a 68-yard touchdown drive, highlighted by Brady's 18-yard completion to David Givens on 3rd-and-9, which set up a 1-yard scoring toss to linebacker-turned-tight end Mike Vrabel. The Pats then added a two-point conversion when Kevin Faulk took a direct snap from center and darted into the end zone for a 29-21 lead with 2:51 to go.

The fireworks had only just begun.

With Delhomme completing passes of 19 yards to Muhammad and 31 to Ricky Proehl, the Panthers moved quickly into scoring position, tying the game on a 12-yard pass to Proehl with 1:08 to play.

But, when Carolina kicker John Kasey's kickoff went out of bounds, the Patriots didn't have far to go to get into field-goal range. A 17-yard pass from Brady to Deion Branch (his 10th catch of the game, for a total of 143 yards) set up a game-winning kick by Adam Vinatieri from 41 yards out with four seconds remaining.

The kick was reminiscent of Vinatieri's field goal two years earlier, against the Rams, in Super Bowl XXXVI, when he nailed a 48-yarder as time expired.

Posted by Jim Donaldson  at 12:11 PM | Permalink