16 Victories That Define Tom Brady's Career
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Tom Brady is an all-time great quarterback, arguably the greatest quarterback, and it's getting difficult to find creative ways to make this point. That tends to happen when you rack up 201 victories over the course of a career that spans 17 years and 263 games started.
And while the achievement of becoming the winningest quarterback of all time is no small feat, speaking of the wins in such broad terms can work to eliminate the effort and execution that went into earning each and every one.
With that in mind, let's take a trip down memory lane, picking out one victory from each season dating back to 2001 and pointing out how each win worked to define the legacy of Tom Brady as we know it.
2001: Week 13, at Buffalo
Statistically, this game looks like nothing. Brady completed 19 of 35 passes for 237 yards, zero touchdowns and one interception. He took five sacks. The offense scored just 12 points. One might wonder how such a game could lead off this list.
But it was in that game that we really got a glimpse of who Tom Brady is. We got to see his level of competitiveness, and the way he's undeterred on a football field.
We saw that when Nate Clements nearly took his head off.
Brady absorbed that massive hit, and popped up unshaken. He ended up getting sacked three times after that hit. But he hung in there to complete 10 of his 15 passes for 116 yards in leading the Patriots back from a 9-6 deficit in what eventually became an overtime win. Brady went 3-for-3 for 34 yards in setting up that game-winning field goal in overtime, after he went 3-for-4 for 52 yards on the game-tying drive in the fourth quarter.
As we now know, that type of poise under pressure was a sign of things to come.
Obviously, that manifested itself in the Super Bowl against the Rams. But you know all about that game already. That showing in Buffalo was the first glimpse of what was possible with the second-year quarterback.
2002: Week 17, vs. Miami
The 2002 Patriots, for one reason or another, were just not that good, despite a convincing win on opening night vs. the Steelers (when Brady threw for 294 yards and three touchdowns, thus proving he didn't spend all offseason celebrating his own greatness after earning Super Bowl MVP honors) to open their new building. But in Week 17, despite an 8-7 record, their playoff hopes were still alive.
They fell behind 21-7 against the Dolphins, and the outlook looked bleak. The Patriots slowly chipped away at the lead, building to an impressive comeback late in the fourth quarter.
The Patriots' offense took over, trailing 24-13, with less than five minutes left to play. Brady went 6-for-9 for 42 yards, completing passes to four different receivers, capped off with a touchdown pass to Troy Brown and a successful two-point conversion pass to Christian Fauria.
Belichick elected to kick deep, and the defense came up with a stop deep in Miami territory. Adam Vinatieri kicked the game-tying field goal, and the game headed to overtime. After Kevin Faulk broke a 15-yard run, Brady completed a pass to the running back for 20 yards. On a third-and-9 from the Miami 24-yard line, Brady completed a 7-yard pass to Brown, setting up a chip shot field goal for Vinatieri to win the game.
The Patriots won, but the Jets later defeated the Packers to win the AFC East. Still, Brady and the Patriots were changing expectations for the team, which now could never be counted out of any game.
2003: Week 7, at Miami
The 2003 season offered many options for this list, considering Brady and the Patriots won 17 games, including a Super Bowl. And that picture-perfect OT pass to David Givens in Denver on Monday Night Football remains among one of the best passes of Brady's career.
But it's important to remember how pesky those Dolphins were in the early 2000s, and how difficult it was for the Patriots to earn wins down in South Florida. In fact, Brady entered the 2003 meeting in Miami with an 0-2 record in Pro Player Stadium, and he looked to be on the way to 0-3 when the Dolphins held a second-half lead.
Trailing by seven, Brady led a drive going 7-for-9 for 64 yards, completing passes to five different receivers, including a 24-yard touchdown pass to David Givens.
Thanks to Richard Seymour blocking a field goal in the fourth and Olindo Mare missing another attempt in overtime, Brady and the offense got a chance to win the game in overtime (despite Gerry Austin losing track of what constituted "tails" on the coin toss). Though they stalled at midfield in their first OT drive, they got the ball back on a Tyrone Poole interception, and they wasted no time at all in putting away a victory.
On the first play of that drive, Brady pumped, then shuffled backward across the Florida Marlins' infield dirt, waving his hand and directing Brown to take off deep across the left side of the field. Brady unleashed a bomb, dropping it perfectly into the arms of Brown, who made the catch and burst to the end zone for an 82-yard game-winning touchdown.
The win ended a 13-game losing streak for the Patriots in Miami in the months of September and October. And it went a long way in establishing the Patriots as the team that was ready to take control of the AFC East. Thirteen years later, they still haven't let go.
2004: AFC Championship Game, at Pittsburgh
This game, as much as any other, is what the legacy of Tom Brady is all about.
Tom Brady had a 103-degree fever. But nothing was going to stop him from playing in the biggest game of the year. The Patriots had lost just two games all year long, and one had been in Pittsburgh, when the Steelers stopped the Patriots' winning streak at 21 games.
The Patriots returned to that scene to face the 15-1 Steelers. It was billed as a clash of titans. It ended up not even being close.
Brady got the Patriots out to an early lead when he hit Deion Branch in stride on a pass that traveled 53 yards in the air. Oh, it was a beauty. He later connected with Branch on a 45-yard bullet deep over the middle, setting up a touchdown pass to David Givens on the Patriots' patented quick pass to the outside. The rout was on.
The defense played lights-out, too, meaning Brady didn't have to do much after a Rodney Harrison interception return made it a 24-3 game before halftime. But Brady's ability to not only play sick but to excel was a testament to his desire to win football games at all costs. Two weeks later, he'd be rewarded with his third Super Bowl victory.
2005: Week 3, at Pittsburgh
Not long after that famed AFC title game, the Patriots returned to Pittsburgh. And though Brady threw an interception and no touchdowns that day, he was especially effective in completing 31 of his 41 passes for 372 yards.
The Patriots trailed 13-10 in the fourth quarter, when Brady led a drive by going 5-for-5 for 76 yards. Corey Dillon punched in the go-ahead touchdown on a drive that went 86 yards in just 3:34.
The Steelers later tied the game at 20 all with a little over a minute to play, and they probably had overtime on their minds. Brady had other ideas, as he quickly went 3-for-3, accounting for all 37 yards of the Patriots' drive, to set up a game-winner for Vinatieri.
At this point in time, with game-winning drives made to look so routine and simple, it felt like the Patriots just could not lose.
2006: Week 11, at Green Bay
Oh, the 2006 season. It marks the biggest missed opportunity of the Brady era, as the hopes for a fourth Super Bowl in six seasons were dashed when the defense blew a 21-3 lead in Indianapolis. Had they secured that win, they would have gone to the Super Bowl to face the Bears -- whom they defeated earlier that season in a game where they picked off Rex Grossman three times.
But the 2006 season was not all tragedy. The Patriots won 12 games and then knocked off the Jets and Chargers in the postseason. For Brady, his finest performance came in his first-ever visit to the football cathedral known as Lambeau Field. Though the mediocre Packers entered that Week 11 matchup with a 4-5 record, that shouldn't lessen the performance of Brady that afternoon.
Opposed by Brett Favre, Brady threw four touchdowns while going 20-for-31 for 244 yards. At the time, the four-touchdown performance matched a career high for Brady. The Patriots' defense actually injured Favre, which sent second-year QB Aaron Rodgers into action, thus bringing the Hall of Fame QB firepower to an impressive level. (Vinny Testaverde even got into the game for some kneeldowns.)
2007: Week 17, at New York Giants
In a season when he threw for a record-setting 50 touchdowns and nearly 5,000 yards, it's awfully difficult to pick one game. His 21-for-25, six-touchdown performance for a perfect passer rating at Miami was the best statistical showing. His 26-for-28, 3-TD playoff performance against the Jaguars was incredible.
But his win in Week 17, at the Giants on a cold December evening, to secure not only the touchdown record but the perfect regular season was the most impressive. That's because -- as we'd all find out about one month later -- the Giants' pass rush was the real deal, and it could cause some serious problems for a pass-first offense like the Patriots had.
And when the Giants took a lead before halftime and then stretched it to a 12-point advantage in the third quarter, it looked like the Patriots were destined for 15-1. But that's when Brady and the offense awakened.
Brady went 5-for-5 for 40 yards on a drive that ended with a Laurence Maroney touchdown run to cut New York's lead to five.
Two possessions later, Brady heaved a deep ball for Randy Moss. It fell incomplete, but both Hall of Famers knew they had the play. Moss caught his breath in the huddle and then once again burned up the field. This time, it worked, with Brady hitting Moss in stride for a 65-yard touchdown.
It was poetry.
The best part of it all, as you can see above, is that Brady took almost no time at all to soak in the moment of setting the record for most single-season touchdown passes by any quarterback in the history of the NFL. Instead, he hurried up to the line, knowing that the Patriots needed to attempt a two-point conversion. (They succeeded.)
The Patriots would soon get the ball back after an Ellis Hobbs interception, and Brady promptly went 5-for-5 for 56 yards before Maroney ran one in from the 5-yard line.
The team had its 16-0 record, Brady and Moss had their single-season touchdown records (Moss' still stands), and all was well in the land of the Patriots for the time being. Obviously the Super Bowl didn't go the way that most people expected it to, but that doesn't take away the performance of that Saturday night in New Jersey.
2008: Week 1, vs. Kansas City
Unfortunately for Brady, this is all we've got for the 2008 season. Brady completed 7-of-11 passes for 76 yards before getting injured by Bernard Pollard while throwing an interception over the middle of the field. The Patriots would go on to win the game, with the "W" officially being credited to Brady.
Coming off the Super Bowl loss, the season-ending ACL tear represented the low point of Brady's career. His comeback has made what he's done in the eight seasons since all the more impressive.
2009: Week 6, vs. Tennessee
Similar to 2002 and 2005, the 2009 Patriots team just seemed to have been lacking in the difficult-to-define intangibles that championship teams tend to have. But it was not a year completely devoid of highlights, with none bigger than the Week 6 romp over the visiting Tennessee Titans.
Some unseasonable snowfall in mid-October made for a fun atmosphere, as Brady (just six games into his first season back from the lost year) went off, throwing for 380 yards and six touchdowns. And he did it in just 35 minutes of football.
The Patriots waltzed to a 59-0 victory, which was tied for the largest margin of victory in the history of the NFL. Brady also set an NFL record with five touchdown passes in one quarter.
2010: Week 12, at Detroit
The Week 10 beatdown he delivered in Pittsburgh may have been the most significant performance of the year, as Brady really found out what he had in a rookie tight end named Rob Gronkowski, who caught three touchdowns that night. But, well, it's hard to beat perfection. And on Thanksgiving, Brady once again posted a perfect passer rating of 158.3.
It's forgotten now, after the 45-24 blowout win, but the Patriots actually trailed 14-3 late in the second quarter of that game, and they trailed 17-10 at halftime. That's when Brady went on one of the most incredible in-game stretches of his career.
Following a Devin McCourty interception, the Patriots took over with 13:06 on the clock in the third quarter. From that point, until the 6:42 mark of the fourth quarter, Brady went 10-for-10 for 216 yards and four touchdowns.
It came after Brady went 10-for-13 in the first half, and he finished the game 21-for-27 for 341 yards, the four TDs and zero picks, good enough for the perfect passer rating.
2011: Week 6, vs. Dallas
The 2011 season had its moments. One that stands out was Brady's ability to somehow survive a car-crash hit from Elvis Dumervil in Denver. Another came in the postseason against the Denver Tebows, when Brady threw six touchdowns and even sent a nice little punt downfield late in the blowout victory.
But in terms of sheer dramatics, nothing beats the Week 6 win at home against Dallas.
After the Patriots let a 13-3 lead slip into a 16-13 deficit, Brady got the ball with 2:31 left in the fourth quarter. Brady drove the offense down the field, and when the Patriots called their final timeout with 27 seconds remaining, they were well in field-goal range at the Dallas 8-yard line. But Brady didn't want to play for overtime. He wanted to play for the win.
Brady took a shotgun snap, and despite knowing that taking a sack would result in a mad scramble that could possibly eliminate the chance of kicking that game-tying field goal, he remained calm in the pocket, just waiting, waiting, waiting. Eventually, Aaron Hernandez broke in toward the middle of the end zone, and Brady delivered a dart right to the tight end's chest.
On the game-winning drive, Brady went 8-for-8 for 78 yards and a touchdown.
For some quarterbacks, a thrilling win like that in the final seconds of the fourth-quarter might be a career-defining moment. But for Brady, it really was just another Sunday.
2012: Week 7, vs. New York Jets
Yeah, the four-touchdown performance on national TV vs. the Texans and their letterman jackets was nice. The four touchdowns vs. the Rams in London was pretty good, too. But it's time to get the Jets on this list.
Just one month shy of the famous Butt Fumble game, Mark Sanchez and the Jets were 3-3 and still somewhat respectable. And for a moment, they likely believed they had a victory in New England. After Nick Folk kicked the game-tying field goal late in the fourth, Devin McCourty fumbled the ensuing kickoff. The Jets then kicked the go-ahead field goal with 1:37 left on the clock, and they felt like they had stolen one from the Pats.
Problem was, Tom Brady was still the quarterback. Brady went twice to Gronkowski, then twice to Woodhead, going 4-for-5 for 54 quick yards. Stephen Gostkowski kicked the game-tying 43-yard field goal, and the game headed to OT.
Brady went 5-for-8 for 41 yards in setting up a field goal on the opening drive of OT, before Rob Ninkovich sealed the victory with a strip sack and fumble recovery.
It wasn't a statistically great day for Brady, but it was a win against the Jets.
2013: Week 6, vs. New Orleans
Tom Brady's 25 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 2013 made a number of people hop off the Brady bandwagon for good, noting that his window was closed and his decline was in full swing. In reality, he was working behind a bad offensive line and with a decimated receiving corps, and arguably the best few years of his career were still to come.
And the 2013 season was not without its moments, including an OT win at home over the Broncos. But it was a home win earlier in the year that makes this list.
Oct. 13, 2013 was a very fun day for Boston sports fans, and it began with a comeback for the ages. Brady actually threw an interception on a deep pass to Julian Edelman just outside of the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter with the Patriots trailing by four. But Chandler Jones came up with a stop of Drew Brees on a third-down bootleg, forcing the Saints to punt.
The Patriots took over with 1:13 left in the game on their own 30-yard line. Brady quickly completed three straight passes -- one to Edelman, one to Austin Collie (who was playing in his first game as a Patriot), and one to Aaron Dobson on a fake spike -- to get the Patriots to the Saints' 26-yard line. After two incompletions to Edelman, the Patriots faced a fourth-and-4. Brady went back to the newcomer in Collie for a clutch 9-yard gain. Brady rushed to the line and spiked the football with 11 seconds remaining.
Needing 17 yards for the end zone, Brady took the next snap and locked in on rookie wideout Kenbrell Thompkins. Brady let one fly toward the back left corner of the end zone, putting the perfect amount of zip and just enough touch to get the ball over the outstretched hand of Saints defensive back Jabari Greer for the game-winning score with 5 seconds left on the clock. It was unicorns and show ponies at Gillette.
Later that night, David Ortiz hit his famous game-tying grand slam in Game 2 of the ALCS, as two Boston sports legends managed to author two incredible moments just a few hours apart.
2014: Super Bowl XLIX, vs. Seattle
For most of Tom Brady's career, even throughout his years of tremendous success, his "signature moment" remained his comeback drive to beat the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. It took a while, but he got his chance to write a new one in Super Bowl XLIX.
Brady hadn't been perfect through three quarters, and his team trailed by 10 points against a historically great Seahawks defense. It was not the best spot for any quarterback -- not even one of the all-time greats -- to find himself in, yet Brady spent the fourth quarter surgically slicing up the Seahawks secondary.
In that final quarter, after being thrust into the the center of a national scandal thanks to the NFL, Brady showed the most remarkable level of focus in his career. He completed 13 of 15 passes for 124 yards and two touchdowns. It was nothing short of incredible.
But a miraculous completion by Jermaine Kearse made it seem as though the Seahawks were going to escape with a victory. As the world knows, Malcolm Butler ended up changing history with his goal-line interception.
Brady came on and, after drawing the Seahawks offsides to get the Patriots out of trouble, took two kneeldowns to seal his fourth -- and his most hard-fought -- Super Bowl win.
2015: Week 1, vs. Pittsburgh
The mention of "DeflateGate" immediately makes most people's eyeballs roll into the backs of their heads. But we can succinctly say this: if the NFL's employees knew how to properly measure and record air pressure measurements and also didn't allow falsely high inflation numbers drive the national conversation, then "DeflateGate" never would have become a saga for the ages.
But the league did those things and, suffice it to say, "DeflateGate" became quite a story. Brady had always dreamed of being in the NFL, yet now the commissioner of the NFL was issuing an all-out assault on the quarterback's character and reputation. It was a charge with Brady fought with all resources available to him, and one in which he finally earned a victory late in the summer.
And after that long summer spent battling the commissioner, Brady took the field on Sept. 10, a night when the Patriots would be hanging their fourth Super Bowl banner. The crowd was wild to see No. 12 out on the field, and he kept them alive all night, completing 25-of-32 passes for 288 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
As we now know, that victory over the commissioner was short-lived, as Brady eventually was forced to serve his suspension the following season. But he clearly had an extra charge in his step that night at Gillette, throwing the first of his NFL-leading 36 touchdown passes.
2016: Week 5, at Cleveland
Admittedly, Brady's best victory of 2016 probably has not been won just yet. At 10-2, the Patriots are on their way to the postseason, where Brady and the Patriots will have a chance to really do something special.
For now, really, it's a three-pack of games that stand out -- at Cleveland, home against Cincinnati, and at Buffalo. But it all began at Cleveland, after Brady spent four weeks watching his team from afar. He stepped back into the fold and showed no signs of rust at all.
Brady went 4-for-5 for 65 yards on his opening drive of the game, allowing LeGarrette Blount to plunge into the end zone to take an early 7-0 lead. On his next drive, he went 4-for-5 for 64 yards and a touchdown. On his third drive, he went 5-for-5 for 56 yards and another touchdown. He completed a 63-yard pass on his next drive, and he finished the game with 406 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Tom Brady was back. And there he remains. Even at age 39, he just keeps winning.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
