Brown adds to his legend

SAN DIEGO -- When you've played in as many playoff games as Troy Brown has -- and with his 19th appearance yesterday, he set a Patriots record -- you know how to navigate your way out of the most crowded of locker rooms. A little hitch and go route, and he was in the clear, down the stadium tunnel, and headed home.

But the reason Brown and the Patriots will be playing at least one more Sunday, in next week's AFC Championship game, is that at age 35 he still hasn't exhausted the ways in which he can help a team win .

Brown, who seemingly had already done it all on offense, defense, and special teams in the course of 14 years with the Patriots, invented a fresh reason why he will be accorded legend status in New England when the games finally end.

With time running out on the Patriots' chances, he stripped Chargers safety Marlon McCree of the ball after McRee's fourth-down interception, setting up a fumble recovery by fellow receiver Reche Caldwell .

Given that reprieve with 6:16 to play, Tom Brady moved the Patriots to the touchdown and conversion that tied the score at 21, the dramatic prelude leading to Stephen Gostkowski's winning field goal with 70 seconds left.

"That saved the game for us," said Caldwell, who later turned a Brady pass into a 49-yard gain that set up the winning kick. "Biggest play of the game.

"I was running the 'in cut' [across the middle]. He [Brady] saw the in cut. The safety did a great job of reading it, and jumped on it."

What McCree did not see, however, was Brown closing in on him.

"He was running with the ball loose," Caldwell said of McCree. "Troy saw that and went in and stripped it, and I just jumped on it."

McCree could have just slapped the ball down at the Chargers' 32 .

"I never did," McCree said when asked if he considered knocking the ball down. "I was trying to make a play, and any time I get the ball I'm going to try and score. If it's a two-minute situation, that is the only time I'll try to knock the ball down. I didn't see the receiver [Brown] behind me and he stripped it.

"The receiver made a great play. I have no regrets for trying to make a play."

Wide receiver Jabar Gaffney, who put up the kind of numbers Brown has produced in games of similar magnitude (10 catches, 103 yards), laughed when asked if Brown had ever stripped him of the ball when they've lined up opposite each other in practice.

"He could never strip it away from me," he said. "But from where I was at, that play just happened so fast, I was getting ready to run over there when I saw him strip it and Reche jump on it. I said, 'Let's line up.' "

On the sideline, linebacker Tedy Bruschi was stunned when McCree picked off the pass, Brady's third interception of the game.

But was he surprised to see Brown in one swift tug at McCree's arm salvage new life from impending disaster?

"Not at all," he said. "Troy had a quick mental switch, going from [offensive player] to defender. I think he realized the situation we were in. We needed the ball, we needed that conversion, and that's who he is.

"That's the playoffs. You think the season can be over with one certain play but the play's not over, you keep playing, and you still have a chance to save it, no matter what."

The saving grace has never manifested itself in quite that way, not from Troy Brown.

"He'll definitely get a game ball for ad-libbing," said defensive end Richard Seymour. "No question about that.

"But he wasn't just a receiver on that play, he was a football player. Troy always comes up with plays like that. If there's one guy I look up to, it's Troy Brown."

Gordon Edes can be reached at edes@globe.com.