Oddly, I have no game from this past season on my list. Seeing Brady have a losing record for the first time was nowhere near as fun as I expected it to be. Mainly because I still had this fear of him in the back of my mind. There is a game from this season though, his last one.
So complete, so thorough, so dominant an ass whooping. And so fun for a few reasons. One, it was over so quickly, and featured a lot of great things. A dominant Dak performance. Brady looking about as bad as I deep down knew he was by this time. And the Manningcast. Nothing says more about how much longevity Brady had that his last game was commented on by Peyton Manning of all people. Seeing Manning I'm sure secretly take in his long rival being blown out at home was all the joy I needed. In reality, I do think there is something beautiful that Peyton commentated on Brady's last game, for good or bad. A weird NFL version of Nadal playing doubles iwth Federer in his last game.
**This is the only Bucs era game on this list, a sign of (1) my stronger connection to football in the Pats years and (2) them being either annoyingly good in 2020 and (3) the Rams playoff loss being more harrowing given how close the Rams came to tripping over themselves and blowing it; a nice escape that it didn't happen, but they had the chance to embarrass them - which would've been way up the list if it happened**
11.) 2012 Week 15 - 49ers 41 @ Patriots 34
This game resonates with me for a few reasons that range from sensible to ridiculous. The sensible was it was a great game with Kaepernick playing out of his mind, featuring the great 49ers defense stunning the Pats into picks and sacks, and of course it giving the Broncos the #1 seed. The ridiculous was everything else - from a team going into Foxboro and beating Brady in inclement weather, to Randy Moss catching two TDs against his old team, to the capper: this game happened a couple days after my last Final as a college student. My life was about to move into a chapter and this game, which I taped and watched the next day after an all nighter to study for said last final, was the first sports memory in it. The #1 seed didn't matter in the end, and the last Pats loss this season is higher up the list, but this one was a sneaky weirdly fun Patriots loss.
10.) 2015 Week 17 - Patriots 10 @ Dolphins 20
The reasons are obvious - the Pats losing this game to a then 5-10 Dolphins team, opened the door for the Broncos to steal the #1 seed (despite starting Osweiler for seven games) later that afternoon. It was also a testament to how far people bent over backwards to not criticize the Patriots. Brady played in the game, but they basically ran the ball to no effect and scored 10 points. People literally said the Pats more or less threw the game by using this heavy-run strategy to rest up as rest was more important than the #1 seed. This was so damn absurd. No, they lost by being stupid and giving away the #1 seed which dearly cost them.
9.) 2019 Week 17/Wild Card - Loss to Miami and Tennessee
This was a two-parter because by 2019 I was so over the Patriots. They had made 8 straight AFC Championships. But first with the shock loss to Miami (this time in Foxboro), we saw the Patriots not get a bye for the first time since 2009. They quckly lost to the Titans in Brady's last game as a Patriot. His final pass as a Patriot was a pick-six. They lost to a team led by Ryan Tannehill. Belichick got upset when Vrabel pulled his intentional penalty to burn clock strategy. The final beauty was for the first time since 2009, I could watch the Divisional Round onwards free and clear of having to worry about either (1) Peyton winning or (2) Brady losing. It was so refreshing, Of course, the playoffs themselves weren't all that good.... but at least I watched them carefree as hell.
8.) 2009 AFC Wild Card - Ravens 33 @ Patriots 14
This is the only time I ever got to see what I always wanted, which is just to see the Patriots flat out dominated in a playoff game. It was 24-0 by the end of the first quarter. The game opened with Ray Rice going for an 83-yd TD on the first play, followed by a sack-fumble of Brady that led to another TD. Brady then threw two INTs, the first of which is maybe the single worst throw a good QB has ever made. It was all smiles. The only downside is that it was so over, and the Ravens so disinterested in passing, that the final three quarters were rather staid. Still, I got what I asked for - the one time.
7.) 2009 Week 13 - Patriots 17 @ Saints 38
The Patriots entered the game 7-3, the Saints 10-0. The Saints were at home where they had dominated everyone to that point. Somehow many pundits were picking the Pats to win. Instead we saw one of the more entertaining blowouts I can remember. Before it got passe to say, the Superdome really was rocking that day. Brees had 5 TDs, from swing passes to blown coverage bombs, to perfectly thrown 45-yard ropes. They were dominant. A Saints defense missing some key pieces and starting ancient Mike McKenzie somehow held the Patriots offense pretty much at bay overall. It was my favorite non-Colts/Broncos related Brady regular season loss, because it felt so good to see them blown out so badly against a team that was just that much better that day.
6.) 2010 AFC Divisional - Jets 28 @ Patriots 21
It would be higher up if not for the fact that I was in India when the game was played, and while I tried to avoid finding out what happened until I could get home and watch on DVR, I failed at the very end. So I knew going in the Jets pulled off the upset. I didn't know how though, and seeing Rex Ryan's defense just utterly fool what had been such a robotically dominant offense was thrilling. I'll never forget the Patriots famous drive to nowhere, an 8-minute drive down 21-10 in the 4th quarter that ended with a turnover on downs. There was one play where Brady held the ball for literally eight seconds. No one was open. The Jets got em; it was so satisfying after watching the Jets beat my Colts the weekend before. They got through the Colts by one point because of a terrile special teams mistake. They beat the unbeatable Patriots without a sweat.
5.) 2005 AFC Divisional - Patriots 13 @ Broncos 27
This is a long time ago, but the passion and intensity of that crowd at Mile High watching their team blitz the shit out of the Patriots won't ever leave me. I remember betting a friend, probably $20, that the Broncos would win. I didn't really know to much about the Broncos other than hearing they usually play the Patriots close. Here it wasn't close. There were also great moments, none more than Champ Bailey's 99-yd interception return. Brady just six yards away from a 13-10 lead, gives up the TD that makes it 17-6. Brady was decent in the game, but they fumbled three times, missed a field goal, and Brady had another interception at the gun to go along with the pick-6. It was just a beautiful scene for Brady's first playoff loss.
4.) 2012 AFC Championship - Ravens 28 @ Patriots 12
The top three, surprise, are the Super Bowl losses. This is my most memorable other game - when the Ravens, fresh off of stealing the soul of both the Broncos and me too in a double-OT classic, went in to Foxboro and after playing close for a half, just bossed the Patriots. It was glorious. I've never denied I was a quasi Ravens fan (and liking Harbaugh and Lamar, still am in many ways) and seeing them do that was jsut great karmic justice, both for what they did to Peyton, and what they came so close to doing the year before. Nothing was better than the three straight TD drives to go from 7-13 down to 28-13 up (including two perfect back shoulder throws to Boldin) to three straight turnovers to end it - Brady choosing not to easily get 4 yards to throw a lob to no-one on 4th down, followed by two straight interceptions. The 2012 Patriots were a great team. They were humiliated.
3.) Super Bowl XLVI - Patriots 17 vs Giants 21
From the second the Giants escaped San Francisco in the NFC Title Game, I was confident the Giants would win. That confidence really didn't waver. They blew out Green Bay and beat San Francisco, and I truly thought both of those two were better than New England. When the Giants quickly raced up 9-0 in the Super Bowl, things felt safe. And then it happened. The Pats started doing their bullshit. Aaron Hernandez (remember him?) and Danny Woodhead and Welker and those mf-ers kept moving the chains. They got TDs either side of halftime and led 17-9 six minutes into the 4th quarter. The fact that they didn't score again is just beautiful. The Giants deserved that game. It wasn't a miracle. There wasn't a helmet catch (miss me with the Manningham throw and catch being "lucky"). There was just brilliance from the Giants - sacking Brady twice, covering receivers well, forcing a pick, and of course scoring enough. The Giants played with them every step of the way, and came out just being better. This was the darkest season of my football life - the year Peyton was injured in. There was something poetic about the Super Bowl being in the House Peyton Built, with his little brother defending Peyton's House from his main rival being crowned there.
2.) Super Bowl LII - Patriots 33 vs Eagles 41
The only reason I really have this above the other Super Bowl loss was this was more surprising. I was actually pretty confident heading into SB46 the Giants would win. Given the Nick Foles of it all, I was not here. But somehow I watched with the lowest of expectations, but little by little the magic of that Eagles team, from Doug Pederson's white hot playcalling, to Nick Foles throwing ridiculous dimes left and right, took over. The Philly Special is the memorable moment, but more so to me was the Eagles answering the Pats every time in that 2nd half, from the ridiculous pass to the 3rd string RB 30 yards downfield for a TD, to the final drive filled with 4th down conversions and the like. The Patriots actually took the lead 33-32 in the secnd half. It didn't matter. This was so unexpected, so special. There's a famous meme of the NFL posting a photo of the Final-4 team QBs that year with their usual "Who Wants It?" type tagline. And you see caricatures of Brady with Foles, Bortles and Keenum. Somehow, in that year, where Brady was the MVP of the league, he was not the one who left that battle royale with the ring. It was Big Dick Nick and Big Balls Dougie P. Just incredible stuff.
1.) Super Bowl XLII - Patriots 14 vs Giants 17
How could it be anything else. It is dangerously close to the 2006 AFC Title Game as overall sports moments. In fact, I'm going to write a Nostalgia Diary around it because it was more than just Tom Brady losing - it was that team losing, to the Giants of all teams. The Helmet Catch. the Sacks. The mysterious going for it on 4th & 13 instead of a 48-yd field goal. It was the Burress TD to end it. The damn close to completed Hail Mary that almost kept it alive. It was watching it with a bunch of school friends, keeping on waiting for the clock to hit 12 on the Giants, just assuming that was the case. The clock seemingly did when Brady connected to Moss to take the lead, but the Giants still somehow pulled it off - and to end it all, stop a perfect season by 35 seconds. Nothing will top this if you strip away personal connection. The NFL peaked in this game period.
