If you heard someone compare a Super Bowl play by New England Patriots QB Tom Brady to one by former Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos QB Peyton Manning, you’d do one of two things:
1. Laugh, uncontrollably, at the idea of an aging Manning leading a comeback after falling behind 28-3 in the Super Bowl after watching Manning flounder in his past two trips to the Super Bowl (ignoring that Manning is the all time leader in comeback victories).
2. Wonder if the person was talking about Brady’s pick-six.
Instead of laughing, we should give that someone the respect they deserve, because it was Brady himself that compared one of his best plays in the Super Bowl to a routine execution by Manning, according to MMQB’s Peter King.
King asked Brady about his throw to Chris Hogan on the third play of overtime, and Brady compared the play to one Manning made all the time in Indianapolis.
“It's such a Peyton Manning type throw,” Brady said. “I watched him for so many years make those throws. I used to be in amazement. Marvin [Harrison] and Reggie [Wayne], they'd cut their route off, turn around, ball was in the air, in stride, 15, 18-yard gain. How the heck did they do that? There's so much trust from the quarterback to the receiver. The DB can't get to the ball faster than the receiver can. You got to believe your receiver is going to get to the ball faster than their guy. That's what that play came down to.”
Brady releases the football before Hogan stems his route to cut back towards the sideline as a supreme example of trust in his receivers. Hogan makes the grab in front of Falcons CB Jalen Collins, who is thisclose to breaking up the pass. Instead, Brady and Hogan connect for 18-yards and the Patriots are on the fringe of field goal range.
“That's 111 practices that we had,” Brady said of his trust in Hogan. “That's however many games. Films, meetings. It's got to be like clockwork. You're throwing it to a spot, he's turning, those are the ones the DBs have been covering all year too. It ended up being a really tight play. But it took great execution.”
Hogan has two more years on his contract and his connection with Brady should be even stronger in 2017. If Brady-to-Hogan becomes the next Manning-to-Harrison, I don’t think anyone will be complaining.