Who really dropped Super Bowl XLVI?

Super Bowl XLVI- sciondriver-Flickr

Was it really Wes Welker who dropped Super Bowl XLVI? Did Tom Brady throw a bad pass to lead the New York Giants to victory? All of these are invalid questions and can’t be correctly answered. The New England Patriots lost to the Giants 21-17, a second Super Bowl that slipped away. Many plays influenced the fall of the Patriots at the Super Bowl, but one play flew under the radar.

With 17 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Brady was feeling the pressure of the Giants defense and had to make a play. In a shotgun formation, Brady launched a long pass deep to the right to tight end, Aaron Hernandez. The ball was incomplete and there was a flag on the play. The Giants were called for having 12 men on defense. The flag was declined and the Patriots had the ball at their 49.

 If the Hernandez catch was complete, the Patriots would be in the red zone and liable to score a touchdown. The game would have rested on Tom Brady’s ability to score in the red zone where he was very effective.

Since the pass wasn’t caught, the Patriots had to settle for a Hail Mary play. The Hail Mary play was very close, but leaping All-Pro tight end, Rob Gronkowski, couldn’t catch the tipped ball.

Prior to the Patriots last drive, one mistake by Giants running back, Ahmad Bradshaw, gave the opportunity to make a final push to score. At the last play of the Giants drive, Bradshaw was supposed to stop at the one yard line in order for the Giants to run down the clock. He stumbled and scored a touchdown giving Brady a chance to score. Even thought the chance was blown, the Patriots should have made all of their catches at crunch time.