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Patriots use fourth-quarter rally to put down resilient Packers
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By Gary Graves
December 20, 2010
Foxborough, MA — Tom Brady remained interception free and the New England Patriots moved closer to home-field advantage on Sunday night, but only because hefty lineman Dan Connolly was light on his feet while defensive back Kyle Arrington came up light-fingered against the Green Bay Packers.
But good teams make good things happen, and that was the Patriots' consolation in a 31-27 victory that required more resolve than they've had to show during an otherwise seamless run. A game in which they trailed the determined Packers three times saw the Patriots (12-2) answer with a 71-yard kickoff return by 6-4, 313-pound Connolly to set up one of Brady's two touchdown passes to tight end Aaron Hernandez, while Arrington returned an interception 36 yards for another score.
A New England defense that was outplayed for the most part by Green Bay rose up to stop the Packers' late rally, while Brady extended his record streak of pass attempts without an interception to 292, so it wasn't all bad. Just more work than expected against a team breaking new quarterback Matt Flynn, making his first NFL start for concussed starter Aaron Rodgers.
"It wasn't one of our better games," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "We couldn't handle the basic things they did and that's disappointing. We made some big plays. It was a game of big plays. We gotta play better than this or we won't last long."
While this week's game film will lack the dominance the Patriots are used to, the highlight will be Connolly's rumble downfield to set up Brady's2-yard TD pass to Hernandez. Besides carrying the ball with textbook form, he looked like he could have run farther if he had to on a return believed to be the NFL's longest ever by a lineman according to STATS Inc.
Detroit's Larry Tearry had a 30-yard return in 1978 that had been was recognized as the longest since then. Atlanta's Mal Snider had a 48-yard return in 1969.
"He was like Gale Sayers out there. … A much bigger version," Patriots linebacker Tully Banta-Cain said.
That play came after Flynn (24 of 37 for 251 yards) threw the second of three TD passes in a performance similar to Rodgers. His only mistake was being picked off early in the third quarter by Arrington.
"I think (Connolly's) run was more impressive, just because you don't see a lineman that's 300-something pounds running away from skill players," Arrington said.
Such plays typified a night that opened with trickery in the form of an onside kick by the Packers, who recovered at their 47 and drove 40 yards to set up Mason Crosby's 31-yard field goal. That gamble offered a hint of Green Bay's urgency and for parts of the game it served the Packers well in reclaiming momentum when the Patriots answered.
It also helped that Flynn showed no jitters in his first career start. Some of the nerves were no doubt erased when he replaced Rodgers in last week's loss to Detroit, but nobody could have expected the boldness he showed in hitting James Jones in stride for a 66-yard touchdown in the second quarter, or the poise he displayed on back-to-back drives resulting in a three-yard scoring pass to John Kuhn in the third and Crosby's 19-yard field goal in the fourth.
Flynn led the Packers down to the Patriots' 15 on the final drive, but the comeback ended with a sack and fumble recovered by nose tackle Vince Wilfork.
"I feel like we did some good things," the third-year player said. "I made a couple of mental mistakes on reads and the ball slipped out two times on my hand, but the bottom line is we didn't make the plays we needed to and that's what bit us in the end."
While Brady's numbers (15 of 24, 163 yards) were meager compared to the 300-yard efforts he had posted in recent weeks, he made the plays that New England needed — from everybody, it turns out.
"I've never seen anything happen so slow in my life," Brady said of Connolly's run to the 4. "That was a really big play in the game. If it happens, we've got to take advantage of it and Danny made that heads-up play. Smart. They won't be kicking to him anymore, I'll tell you that."
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