Hernandez On Game Winner: 'Knew It Was Time To Step Up'
BOSTON (CBS) – Much like the New England Patriots as a team, tight end Aaron Hernandez came up big in the end to atone for an earlier mistake.
In the third quarter of the Patriots 20-16 come-from-behind win, the Patriots were cruising down the field primed to score. With the game knotted at 13-13 and the Patriots on the Dallas 21, quarterback Tom Brady went to Hernandez, as he had already done three times on the drive. Hernandez made the catch, but coughed up the ball for his first fumble of the season.
The Cowboys recovered, but luckily the Patriots defense forced them to punt.
Despite the fumble, Brady did not shy away from going to Hernandez in crunch time. The two hooked up for the game-winning eight yard strike with just 22 seconds left.
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For Hernandez, it was a great way to redeem himself.
"We just came out to play at the end," said Hernandez, who finished with a career high eight receptions for 68 yards. "We follow Tom's lead. We know he's going to put us in the right play at the right time. We just have to do the easy part, run the route and he'll put it there."
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"When you have a quarterback like Tom, anything can happen as long as there's time on the clock," he added.
"He's done a lot of good things. He's really become a dependable player," Brady said of Hernandez. "[He] runs very good routes. Coach always says 'A receiver should get open, catch the ball and then do something with it after they catch it.' Aaron has really done all three things. He's really made a big jump from his first year to his second year and that's why he's out there at the end of the game."
"He was able to redeem himself (Sunday). Luckily, he got that chance," Belichick said of Hernandez after the game. "That opportunity doesn't always come again."
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Hernandez began the comeback drive with a 16 yard reception. Eight plays later, he was open in the end zone for the win.
"I had an in-route and Gronkowski had an out-route," recalled Hernandez. "He's a great player so he drew the safety's attention and I came around and Tom made a great throw. I just had to make the catch."
"(It was a) great catch by Aaron," said Brady. "A lot of guys made big plays on that drive; we really needed it. We really kind of squandered away some opportunities throughout the game but came up big when we needed it. The defense was really incredible today. That's a good offense with a lot of damn good football players. They really buckled down when they needed to and offensively we put together a drive when we needed to.
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"We just knew it was time to step up. The type of players we have - everyone knows we have to step up and everyone stepped up," said Hernandez.
The Patriots tight end has 27 receptions for 289 yards and three touchdowns in four games this season.
