Super Men 2
Adam Vinatieri field goal wins it again as time expires
HOUSTON -- Just what you expected, right?
Super Bowl XXXVIII between the New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers was supposed to be a defensive struggle. It was supposed to be low scoring. It was supposed to be -- ha! -- boring. It was none of those things.
Adam Vinatieri, the hero of New England's Super Bowl victory two years ago, did it again for the Patriots with a 41-yard field goal with four seconds left that lifted the Patriots to a thrilling 32-29 victory, their 15th consecutive win.
Vinatieri won Super Bowl XXXVI with a 48-yard field goal as time expired. He had missed twice last night in the game (one blocked), and his only career misses indoors were at Reliant Stadium.
Tom Brady earned his second Pete Rozelle Trophy as the Super Bowl's Most Valuable Player and became the youngest quarterback to win two championships by passing for 354 yards and three touchdowns on a game-record 32 completions (in 48 attempts).
New England started the winning drive at its 40 thanks to John Kasay's kick out of bounds. Brady, providing an encore to the drive he orchestrated to defeat the Rams in 2002, needed 1:04 to direct the Patriots 37 yards in six plays to the winning points last night.
The Patriots were 2 minutes 44 seconds from capturing the Vince Lombardi Trophy again after Brady's 1-yard touchdown pass to Mike Vrabel and Kevin Faulk's 2-point conversion run gave them a 29-22 lead. The touchdown toss atoned for an end zone interception on New England's previous possession that led to the Panthers taking a 1-point lead on Jake Delhomme's record 85-yard touchdown pass to Muhsin Muhammad.
But Carolina hadn't quit all season, and it wasn't about to start in its last game. With Rodney Harrison out of the game with what he said later was a broken bruised right arm, and backups Chris Akins and Shawn Mayer (a rookie) serving as the Patriots' last line of defense, Delhomme picked apart New England's defense during a seven-play, 80-yard scoring drive and tied the game on a 12-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Proehl, the former Rams receiver who tied Super Bowl XXXVI at 17 with a touchdown catch in the fourth quarter before Vinatieri won it.
Super Bowl XXXVIII was scoreless for a record 26 23 minutes 55 seconds. It was worth the wait.
The Panthers and Patriots combined to score 24 points in the final 3:05 of the first half, at the end of which the Patriots led, 14-10.
New England was 18 seconds from a 7-point halftime lead, but Vinatieri, who earlier had missed a field goal and had another blocked, failed to execute a squib kick, and Kris Mangum returned it 12 yards to the Panthers' 47-yard line.
Stephen Davis, whom the Patriots held to 19 rushing yards on his first nine attempts, broke a 21-yarder through a New England defense clearly expecting a pass. Carolina called its final timeout with five seconds left in the half, and Kasay kicked a 50-yard field goal as time expired.cqs
For most of the half, the game was, as expected, a defensive struggle. Though the Patriots started two of their first three drives in Panthers' Panthers territory, the teams battled to the fifth scoreless first quarter in Super Bowl history and first in 12 games. Carolina and New England combined for more punts (six) in the first 15 minutes than first downs (four).cq
The Patriots' best scoring chance of the quarter was on their first drive, but Vinatieri's 31-yard attempt was wide right. Vinatieri came into the game having made 31 of 33 career attempts indoors (Reliant Stadium's retractable roof was closed), with both misses coming here, Nov. 23, against the Texans.
The Patriots failed to score a touchdown their first two times in the red zone, extending their drought to eight trips. In the second quarter, they drove 14 plays to Carolina's 18,cq but David Givens dropped a pass that would have given them a first down, and Shane Burton blocked Vinatieri's 36-yard attempt with six 6 minutes left in the half.
To that point the game's most exciting sequence was Carolina coach John Fox's challenge of the spot on Antowain Smith's first-down carry on third and inches (Will Witherspoon greeted him rudely at the line of scrimmage; Smith got it by half the length of the football). Those who were concerned that a matchup between teams with strong defenses and conservative offenses would be boring had their fears realized for almost an entire half.
That quickly changed. With Carolina facing a third and 12 from its 25 with 5:22 left in the second, Vrabel came free from Delhomme's blind side and stripped the Panthers quarterback of the football. It was Vrabel's second sack of the half. Richard Seymour recovered the fumble, and the Patriots were in business at Carolina's 20.
The scoring soon ended, and so did New England's run of futility in the red zone. Brady converted a third and 7 with a 12-yard scramble (which he celebrated with an emphatic first down signal), and on first and goal from the 5 lobbed a touchdown pass to Deion Branch, who was wide open thanks to Brady's play fake to Smith.
The way the game was going, 7 points looked to be enough to secure the Patriots' second title in three seasons. And things looked even better when the Panthers, who to this point had minus-7 total yards, began the ensuing possession at their 5. But Carolina drove 95 yards in eight playscq to the tying touchdown, a 39-yard strike down the right sideline from Delhomme to Steve Smith.cq
The key play on the drive was Proehl's juggling 13-yard catch on third and 5 from the 10. Delhomme hit Muhammad for 23 yards and Proehl again for 15 before the two-minute warning. The Panthers were in Patriots' Patriots territory for the first time, and they made it count. On third and 10 from the 39, Smith shook ex-Panther Tyrone Poole at the line of scrimmage and got a clean release, and Poole never had a chance to prevent the longest touchdown pass against the Patriots this season. The game was tied, 7-7, with 1:07 left in the first half.
New England regained the lead 49 seconds later, when Brady capped a 78-yard, six-play drive with a 5-yard touchdown toss to Givens,cq whom Brady had overthrown in the back of the end zone two plays earlier. Again, the play worked because of play action, this time to Faulk. The big play on the drive was Brady's 52-yard hook-up with Branch, who was on his way to a 100-yard receiving day.
Vinatieri's poor squib kick was characteristic of the Patriots' special teams in the first half. Brian Kinchen's long snaps were off target. Ken Walter had a 22-yard punt. Vinatieri missed a field goal and had another blocked. Troy Brown muffed a punt.
But, as they have all season, the Patriots found a way to overcome their mistakes and, at the start of the fourth quarter, were 5 yards from another touchdown after Brady's 33-yard completion to Daniel Graham down the seam put them at Carolina's 10. On the first play of the first play of the fourth, Houston-resident Smith scored from 2 yards for a 21-10 lead.
When Smith scored from 2 yards on the first play of the fourth quarter to give the Patriots a 21-10 lead, their streaks of 23 consecutive victories in games they led at halftime and 27 in a row when leading after three quarters appeared safe. But the Patriots weren't playing the Kittens. The Panthers drove 81 yards in six plays to trim New England's lead to 21-16 with 12:39 left.
Fitting that on a day when the Panthers completed the longest touchdown pass of the season year against the Patriots, they also broke the longest run, a 33-yard touchdown jaunt by DeShaun Foster. Running off the right side, Foster broke containment, broke a few tackles, broke free down the left sideline, and dived into the end zone. Trailing by 5, Carolina went for 2 points to make it a field goal game, but Delhomme's pass to Muhammad fell incomplete.
The Patriots were driving toward another touchdown on their ensuing possession, but on third and goal from the 9, Brady threw an interception to Reggie Howard in the end zone with 7:48 to go in the game.
The Panthers made him pay -- big time, with a big play. On third and 10 from his 15, Delhomme connected with Muhammad down the left sideline for a Super Bowl-record 85-yard touchdown pass. Ty Law was in zone coverage on the play, and rookie Eugene Wilson was late getting over to Muhammad, who put Wilson down with a stiff arm at around the 5-yard line on his way to the end zone. Delhomme's 2-point conversion pass intended for Kevin Dyson fell incomplete, and Carolina led, 22-21.
New England had not trailed in a game since Nov. 23 here against the Texans, who led, 20-13, in the fourth quarter before the Patriots rallied to win in overtime.
