New England Patriots: Ranking Top 5 Performers in the 2017 NFL Playoffs
By Hal Bent
Tom Brady
A lot of things went wrong for the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 52 in the 41-33 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles but little of it was New England quarterback Tom Brady’s fault. After setting an NFL record for passing yards in Super Bowl 51 amassing 466 yards, he smashed that record becoming the first quarterback in NFL history to surpass 500 yards passing in any playoff game, let alone in a Super Bowl.
For the playoffs, Brady was 89 of 139 (64% completion percentage) for 1,132 yards and eight touchdowns without an interception for a 108.6 quarterback rating (all statistics from NFL.com unless otherwise noted). Brady started slowly against Tennessee shaking off rust after the bye week to finish 35 of 53 for 337 yards and three touchdowns.
AFC Conference Championship
After another slow start against the strong Jacksonville defense, Brady shook off the rust in the second half without his top target Rob Gronkowski who was lost due to a concussion. Brady led the Patriots back to the Super Bowl completing 26 of 38 passes for 290 yards and two touchdowns primarily targeting his wide receivers in coverage against arguably the best cornerback duo in the league (personally I would rate Denver’s Aqib Talib and Chris Harris Jr. a notch above A.J. Bouye and Jalen Ramsey but it is basically a coin flip with these great cornerbacks).
Super Bowl 52
In the Super Bowl, Brady did the same thing he does in every Super Bowl: he brought his team back with a drive in the fourth quarter to take the lead. This year, the defense let him down being incapable of making a stop. The 40-year old quarterback was 28 of 48 for 505 yards and three touchdowns. He did not throw an interception in the playoffs and was sacked just four times showing pocket awareness and mobility.