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Brady-to-Brown puts Pats in position
By Greg Garber
ESPN.com

NEW ORLEANS -- It's called "64-Max, All In," and it is about as offensive as the New England Patriots are willing to be.

Troy Brown
Troy Brown's 23-yard reception in the final minute set up the winning field goal.
Wideouts Troy Brown, Charles Johnson and David Patten all line up on the right side. Patten, flanked the farthest from quarterback Tom Brady, runs 18 yards straight down the field and bangs a 90-degree left-hand turn. Johnson, in the middle, runs 25 yards and goes hard left. Brown, closest to Brady, runs 12 yards and heads (sharply) in the same direction. The idea is to flood the zone to the offense's left and simultaneously spread out the defense. Everybody else blocks and hopes Brady can find someone open.

With 29 seconds left in Super Bowl XXXVI, Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis called 64-Max-All-In. The score was 17-all and the Patriots were on their 41-yard-line, facing a second-and-11. Brown ran his typical, precise route and drifted into a sliver of open space.

"Troy's the first guy I'm looking for," Brady said later of the man who caught 101 passes in the regular season. "I'm looking for Troy -- always Troy."

Brady -- fairly composed because the Rams weren't blitzing -- feathered a laser toward Brown.

"They were in a zone defense and I saw the Mike linebacker (London Fletcher) dropping deep," Brown said. "On the other side of me was the dead spot of the zone, so I knew I had to get over there to get a chance to get it. Tom did a good job of stepping up and finding me."

Brown gathered the ball in, just as he was supposed to, 14 yards or so downfield, around the Rams' 47. He sprinted at an angle, away from Rams safety Adam Archuleta, who eventually drove him out of bounds at the St. Louis 36.

"There was a little cushion there, and he got away from me," Archuleta said. "You're trying to keep him in front of you there, try not to give up a big play."

It wasn't a touchdown, but it was clearly a big, big play.

The gain was good for 23 yards. It was a pivotal moment, because the Patriots were out of timeouts, and with the clock running down, the big gain kept alive their hopes for a winning field goal in regulation. An incompletion there might have meant overtime and a chance for the Rams to regroup.

"What Tom Brady is doing is giving me goose bumps," said Fox's John Madden up in the broadcast booth.

Well, it gave the Patriots' goose bumps, too.

"The ball goes to Troy, and I'm jumping up and down," Johnson said. "He's done it all season long, and Tom has done it all season long. That play made us believe we could win it right then."

Three plays later, after a modest 6-yard pass completion to tight end Jermaine Wiggins and a spiked pass to stop the clock, placekicker Adam Vinatieri lined up for a 48-yard field goal. There were seven seconds left on the clock. It was, as the world knows by now, quite good. Brady was named MVP, but Brown was his critical accomplice.

"Like we always say: Just do what you do," Brown said. "Just do what you do, baby, and we did it. Everybody who doubted us, don't talk to me. Don't talk to us. We got our ball on this year."

More moments
It was a game of breathtaking twists and turns, a Super Bowl game that lived up to its name -- and then some.

While Tom Brady's 23-yard pass to Troy Brown was the play of the game, there were a handful of nearly frozen moments. Call them chilly. An accounting:

No. 1: Adam Vinatieri came into the Super Bowl with three field goals that won overtime games this season alone: Oakland in the divisional playoffs, at Buffalo, Dec. 16, and against San Diego, Oct. 14.

This time, Vinatieri does it as time runs out in the biggest game of his life. He drills a 48-yarder straight and true and the Patriots shock the world.

No. 2: Late in the first half of a tight 7-3 game, Kurt Warner completes a pass to Ricky Proehl for 15 yards. Safety Antwan Harris crushes him and knocks the ball loose. Cornerback Terrell Buckley scoops it up and goes 15 yards, to the Rams' 40-yard line. Appropriately, the Patriots' fifth and sixth defensive backs made one of the game's huge plays.

Five plays later, Brady hit David Patten with a spectacular 8-yard touchdown pass. Instead of a 7-3 game at halftime -- or worse from the Patriots' perspective -- it was 14-3 at the half, which gave the Patriots enough cushion in the second half to stay conservative and keep the Rams' explosive offense off the field.

No. 3: Kurt Warner, diving for the end zone early in the fourth quarter, gets belted by linebacker Roman Phifer. Instead of drawing to within a touchdown, the ball is on the ground and, lo and behold, Patriots safety Tebucky Jones is returning it 97 yards for a touchdown and a 24-3 lead...

But, no ... Willie McGinest is detected holding (wrestling to the ground, actually) running back Marshall Faulk on the play and the Rams get a first-and-goal at the Pats' 1. It's a 14-point swing, and it gets the Rams back into the game.

No. 4: With 8:49 left in the first half, New England linebacker Mike Vrabel dusts Warner as he releases the ball, and cornerback Ty Law steps in front of Isaac Bruce for the interception. He races 47 yards for a touchdown and erases the Rams' 3-0 lead. A big momentum changer.

No. 5: Torry Holt stumbles, and Warner throws the ball off-line, right into the mitts of cornerback Otis Smith late in the third quarter. Smith returns the thing for a formidable 30 yards, and the Pats are in business at the Rams' 33. Vinatieri eventually kicks a 37-yard field goal, and the Patriots have converted three turnovers into 17 points -- all they need to get to Vinatieri's game-winner.

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.

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