If Brady's Not Perfect, He's the Next Best Thing

Patriots Coach Bill Belichick gets a hug from Tom Brady. "We got a quarterback who's more concerned about wins than stats and being a self-promoting guy," kicker Adam Vinatieri said. (Winslow Townson -- AP)

PITTSBURGH -- The argument concerning the greatest NFL quarterback of his generation needs to be shelved for at least two weeks. We have to resist getting into any more of those ridiculous, touchdown-to-interception statistical ratios that vault anyone over Tom Brady.

We need to stop calibrating the game and start celebrating the second coming of Joe Montana. We need to give the quarterback of the New England Patriots and his team their proper due and never bet against them again. At least until they lose a playoff game.

Brady made this loud, cold stadium go dead quiet Sunday night, throwing for two touchdowns, completing two-thirds of his passes and finishing with a sparkling 130.5 passer rating. He is now 8-0 in the postseason. He sent the New England Patriots, the best team money can't buy, to their third Super Bowl in four years. He and the Patriots put up 41 points against the best defense in pro football.

He accomplished the feat here in Allegheny County, the ancestral home of quarterbacking icons Jim Kelly, Joe Namath, Dan Marino, Johnny Unitas and Montana, whose San Francisco 49ers used to be the kind of big-game lock that Brady and the Patriots are today.

Brady did it on the field of the Steelers, the first modern pro football franchise called a dynasty. He made his 6-foot-5, 241-pound, previously unbeaten counterpart walk off Heinz Field as Little Ben Roethlisberger.

Funny, no? Peyton Manning was all the rage a week ago. The Donovan McNabb-Michael Vick duel filled up most of the past week. If we talked about Brady at all, it was after we dissected Roethlisberger, the unbeaten Pittsburgh rookie who was intercepted three times by New England last night in a convincing 41-27 victory.

"I've gotten a lot of attention the last few years, so I wouldn't say I've been short-changed," Brady said afterward. "I mean, you look at Donovan McNabb and what he's done for years in Philadelphia, how can you not talk about him?"

Did we mention humility? Unreal.

It's wild how we incessantly pelt the fan with statistics all week: "The Patriots are 3-0 in games decided by three points or less . . . the Patriots are 2-4 when trailing after three quarters . . . the Patriots are . . . "

Enough. Cincinnati and Miami blew past New England's defense in the regular season as if the Patriots were Arizona. But neither of those games had any bearing on what kind of team the Patriots were in the postseason.

What other team could come into one of the most rowdy stadiums in professional football without two of its best defensive players -- the injured defensive end Richard Seymour and cornerback Ty Law -- and dominate for most of four quarters? The Patriots played on the road in a wind-chill temperature of minus-1 and completely discombobulated a club that had won its past 15 games.

Holding Manning and one of the great offenses in NFL history to three points last week was phenomenal. But there is no better testament to New England's greatness than what happened this evening. Not Adam Vinatieri's clutch kicks to win two Super Bowls, not the NFL record, 21-game winning streak stretched over two seasons, not even advancing to three Super Bowls in four years. Because all those accomplishments encompassed games, years and time. Manhandling Pittsburgh was about the moment, about the Patriots proving they were the best team this week.

There was a piece of ridiculous logic going around that the Patriots had already played their Super Bowl, that the buildup to the Indianapolis game and the conquest of Manning would somehow sap New England. They had so little to prove after quieting their detractors last week, they might falter. That would make sense, unless one had overheard Brady as he passed Bill Belichick's office on his way out of Gillette Stadium after the Colts game.

"Now we get ready for the toughest game of the year, right?" Brady said to his coach, who nodded. Indy was not the mission; it only gave Brady a chance to get back to the place of his most gnawing professional failure this season. In the Oct. 31 loss that ended the Patriots' streak, Brady was atrocious. He fumbled, threw two interceptions and his play led to 24 Steelers points in a 34-20 loss. The hero was fallible, a natural storyline for the networks.

Of course, CBS would stick Phil Simms with Brady in a backlit room together. Or ESPN would cull together some mood music and have Tom Jackson or Chris Berman or somebody deeply probe the New England quarterback's damaged psyche before the rematch. How many of these over-the-top sit-down interviews leading up to the "big" game do we see a year with one player or another? Fifty? Eighty?

You know how many Tom Brady did this week? None. He was in lockdown all week, refusing to play the hype game because it took away from his singleminded focus on beating Pittsburgh.

"We got a quarterback who's more concerned about wins than stats and being a self-promoting guy," Vinatieri said after the game. "You can talk about the stats and all this and all that. I'd take this guy any day of the week. He just impresses me every week and does things every week that are unbelievable."

Brady threw a 60-yard bomb over the No. 1 defense in the NFL this year, making strong safety Troy Polamalu bite. It was the longest play Pittsburgh gave up all season. It set the tone for a rout and siphoned the drama out of a city.

Who knew this would be the Pennsylvania town most tortured by its team this morning? Who figured on Bill Cowher losing four conference championship games on his home field?

It's all Brady's fault. "The thing I've learned about being in these playoff games is you can't make mistakes or you'll lose," he said. "You have to be perfect."

For eight playoff games -- and counting -- he is.