When you’ve played in 17 divisional round games, you’re bound to have made several memorable moments over the years. That was certainly the case for Tom Brady, who went 14-3 in the divisional round in his career.
One of Brady’s favorite moments from a divisional round game, though, didn’t involve him throwing for a touchdown or even making a play as a quarterback. In the most recent edition of “Story Time with Tom,” Brady recalled how quick punt in the New England Patriots 45-10 win over the Denver Broncos in the divisional round of the 2011 season was one of his favorite memories. Brady said the decision for him to punt in the fourth quarter of that game was his idea.
“It’s third-and-long and on the second down play, I ran over and said, ‘Coach, what about the quick kick’ to Bill [Belichick,]” Brady recalled. “He said, ‘Great, let’s do it.’ I was thinking we were going to do the quick kick on the fourth down because were on the 50-yard line.
“I wanted to be like, ‘Oh, we’re disguising it.’ He called the quick kick on third down, which is kind of what the theory of that is. So, you want a quick kick when the defense [isn’t expecting it]. You’re already backed up, it’s third-and-long, you don’t think you’re going to get it, you’re going to surprise the defense by punting it.”
‘Absolute Melee on the Sideline’ 😳 Why Tom Brady Punted in a Divisional Playoff Game
The Patriots’ decision to punt with Brady came with just over three minutes remaining in the game as they were faced with a third-and-10 from their own 42-yard line. As the Patriots had the game well in hand at that point, Brady want to put into work something he practiced for quite some time.
“One of the cooler traditions I’ve had as a quarterback is that every Friday after practice, all the quarterbacks and our quarterbacks coach had a punting competition,” Brady said. “You would punt from the 50-yard line and you would try to put it as close to the goal line as possible without going in [the end zone] our out of bounds. We kept a running tab all year of who would end up winning. So, we were always punting and over the course of the weeks, we practiced the quick kick, too.”
Brady said that the punt wasn’t his “best kick,” but it was effective. It traveled roughly 45 yards off his foot before landing and rolling an extra 10 yards down to the Broncos’ 10-yard line.
What might have been as memorable about that play for Brady was the skirmish afterward. The Broncos weren’t happy with the Patriots running a play like that as there was a fight that broke out on New England’s sideline.
“The best part of it was, the Broncos weren’t very happy about that. In fact, there was a fight that ensued on our sideline after that,” Brady said. “All the linemen were in there. Of course, Ryan Wendell, who is now the offensive linemen coach for the Rams and one of the toughest, scrappiest guys I’ve ever been around, he’s instigating the fight on our sideline. It’s also good [idea] — any NFL player, if you’re going to get into a fight, do it on your sideline, not the opponent’s sideline. So, Wendy’s involved, Logan Mankins is involved and it was an absolute melee on the sideline. I was just sitting it back, watching it all.”
That punt capped off a pretty prolific passing day for Brady. He completed 26 of 34 passes for 363 yards, six touchdowns and an interception that day.
“That was one of the best playoff games I’ve ever been a part of, in terms of rhythm,” Brady said. “We had so much juice to start in that game. Some of the unique things we did in that game was that we put our tight end, [Aaron] Hernandez at halfback in the first drive and went no huddle on the Broncos. They didn’t know how to adjust. We were throwing the ball. We were running the ball. They were totally on their heels. We got them defensive. We kept our rhythm. We pushed the ball down the field. We just kept scoring drive after drive. I was picking them apart.”
And while Brady had a decent punt that day, what he did in the air showed why it was a good decision by him to not try and be like a Travis Hunter.
“Thankfully not,” Brady said on if there were other positions he could’ve played in his career. “I had two or three punts in my career. I had a few plays where I caught some passes in my career, never a touchdown. I dropped a few meaningful ones. I didn’t bring that up, you brought that up. I try to think about the positive things. That’s kind of one of my qualities.”
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