Nothing is for sure in the NFL anymore. A streaker can avoid tight security in a Super Bowl. The halftime show can end up half-naked. Great defenses sometimes fail.
But Tom Brady and Jake Delhomme again demonstrated why quarterbacks get the big bucks. Two guys nobody wanted lit up the Super Bowl like never before, overcoming doubt, defense, drops and down-and-distance to prove once again you’d better have a good man under center if you want to win.
Recent Super Bowls had left some question. Brad Johnson, Trent Dilfer, even Brady himself had somehow seemed to be along for the ride. They were the quarterback “managers,” lending credence to a theory that the position might be diminishing in importance. If the quarterback can just avoid mistakes, the theory goes, everything will work out.
But this Brady-Delhomme duel was Terry Bradshaw and Roger Staubach, John Elway and Brett Favre, Troy Aikman and Jim Kelly, Joe Montana and Dan Marino. They turned into gunslingers from bygone days.
Brady took home the Most Valuable Player hardware, but Delhomme’s passer-efficiency rating was higher. He threw no interceptions, and Brady’s one interception nearly cost his team the game. Each threw three touchdown passes against defenses that were supposed to chew up quarterbacks mentally and physically.
Because neither Brady nor Delhomme was a high draft choice with higher expectations, their coaches’ contributions cannot be underestimated. Brady’s development, by New England’s Bill Belichick and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, and Delhomme’s emergence, under Carolina’s John Fox and offensive coordinator Dan Henning, are lessons for every NFL team. That’s especially true for teams like the Bears, who haven’t enjoyed productive relationships between quarterbacks and coaching staffs since George Halas and Sid Luckman.
Belichick added quarterbacks coach John Hufnagel to his list of people responsible for Brady’s success on one of the most team-oriented champions in years.
In Brady, the Patriots have a gem because he obviously has bought into all the grunt work necessary to become great. Likewise, Delhomme sat on an NFL bench in New Orleans for six years before he got an opportunity. Nothing was ever handed to either quarterback, which might put them ahead of many top draft choices in the area of determination.
But whether a quarterback is a can-miss project off the street or a can’t-miss prospect off the draft boards, his development is critical. So is play-calling. The Patriots and Panthers enjoyed the spoils of both in the most entertaining Super Bowl ever.
The only explanation for the shootout that overtook the scoreless defensive battle of the first and third quarters was the brilliance of each quarterback, helped by bold play-calling in a nothing-to-lose, everything-to-gain atmosphere.
No Belichick defense gives up 80-yard drives, let alone four of them in one game, and still lives to celebrate victory.
“They made good throws, good catches, took the ball away from us,” Belichick said. “They executed their passing game better than we defended it.”
The game was scoreless until Brady scrambled for 12 yards to set up his first touchdown pass. Delhomme answered with perfect passes to Muhsin Muhammad and Steve Smith to tie it 7-7, only to have Brady come back with a 52-yard pass to Deion Branch. Brady rolled out and waited patiently for Branch to break open, setting up another touchdown.
If the entire second half had been scoreless, it would have been a memorable Super Bowl, decided in a furious 3-minute-5-second span of the first half. It turned out the quarterbacks were just warming up. When Brady’s passes put his team up by 11 early in the fourth quarter, the Patriots thought they were home free. Back came Delhomme, and soon it was 21-16. Here, coaching fell short when Fox ordered a two-point conversion try with 12:39 to play. That’s way too much time to gamble with points.
“If you think it’s going to be the last score, you probably go for two,” Belichick said. “If you feel there’s going to be more scoring, then the percentage is probably to take the points. But I would never second-guess a decision like that by the opposing coach.”
Had the Patriots played for a field goal on the ensuing drive, they would have been up by eight points with 7:38 to play. Instead, Brady threw an interception in the end zone, a questionable call by Weis and a more questionable decision by Brady.
When Delhomme hit Muhammad for an 85-yard score with 6:53 left, the Panthers were forced to go for two to extend their 22-21 lead. Two one-point conversions would have put them up 24-21.
Again, Brady marched his team down the field, completing two third-down conversions. After his touchdown pass to Mike Vrabel, the Patriots went for two and made it to go up 29-22. Had they been behind 24-21, Belichick said Monday he would have kicked the extra point to go up 28-24.
When Delhomme answered again with his TD pass to Ricky Proehl with 1:08 left, the Panthers would have been up 31-28 and Adam Vinatieri’s field goal would have only tied the game.
They might still be playing.
Fox and Henning rode Delhomme further than anybody had any right to expect. The Panthers were bold in their decision to pursue a free agent with only two starts in six years. They were as bold as Belichick was in 2001 when he benched No. 1 draft choice Drew Bledsoe in favor of a sixth-rounder who showed promise.
Great teams and great coaches don’t become great without making such decisions.
Other Super showdowns
A look at how some of the great quarterbacks performed against each other in previous Super Bowls.
SUPER BOWL X
Jan. 18, 1976
Pittsburgh 21, Dallas 17
Terry Bradshaw
Pittsburgh Steelers
9 of 19, 209 yards
2 TDs, 0 INTs
Roger Staubach
Dallas Cowboys
15 of 24, 204 yards
2 TDs, 3 INTs
SUPER BOWL XIX
Jan. 20, 1985
San Francisco 38, Miami 16
Joe Montana
San Francisco 49ers
24 of 35, 331 yards
3 TDs, 0 INTs (MVP)
Dan Marino
Miami Dolphins
29 of 50, 318 yards
1 TD, 2 INTs
SUPER BOWL XXXII
Jan. 25, 1998
Denver 31, Green Bay 24
John Elway
Denver Broncos
12 of 22, 123 yards
0 TDs, 1 INT
Brett Favre
Green Bay Packers
25 of 42, 256 yards
3 TDs, 1 INT
