both sides of the ball, offense and defense, flipped the mental switch from offense to defense, and in the blink of an eye stripped the ball from Mcree’s hands where it bounced to the ground and was smothered by Patriot wide receiver Reche Caldwell, keeping the Patriot’s drive alive.

A few plays later Mr. Caldwell achieved a few degrees of separation from his defender in the left corner of the end zone where Mr. Brady found him with the football. Now, all the Patriots needed was a two point conversion to tie the game.

Tom Brady Signals Touchdown

All across New England, and surely including the Mt. Hope contingent of Patriot Nation, fans were glued to the tube and for most of the game surely squirming in their seats. But you could feel a shift had occurred in the game sometime in the 4th quarter. Now was our time.

The Pats lined up for the attempted two point conversion with running-back Kevin Faulk in the backfield. With San Diego coach Marty Schottenheimer trying in vain to call a time out (he’d recognized too late what the intended play would be), Tom Brady faked receiving the snap, which instead went directly to the man in motion, Mr. Faulk, who plunged into the end zone for the essential two points. Tie game.

Fake to Faulk -- 2-Point Conversion

It sounds easy in retrospect. All that was needed now was for the ever cool Mr. Brady to march the team down field into field goal range where our rookie kicker Stephen Gostkowski would kick the game winning 3 pointer. Mission accomplished.

Gostkowski's Winning Kick

Another memorable performance from the Patriots, now, one game away from the Super Bowl. Next week, the Indianapolis Colts.