Tom Brady may want to stay away from his television in the two weeks leading up to Super Bowl XLVI against the Giants.
The Patriots quarterback said Monday that losing to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII still gnaws at him, and seeing highlights of David Tyree’s miracle catch and Plaxico Burress’ game-winning touchdown make him sick to his stomach.
“Belive me If you lose this game there’s an awful feeling in your stomach for a lot of years,” he told Boston sports-talk radio station WEEI. “I still can’t watch highlights from that game. I just think that’s the way it is. You get to the end and we had a great opportunity and really squandered it because we didn’t play our very best.”
They certainly didn’t. The Giants battered Brady with a ferocious pass rush in the previous Super Bowl meeting between the two teams, pulling off a 17-14 upset and denying New England of a 19-0 season. Brady was sacked five times and either knocked down or hit on many of his drop-backs.
Brady knows that the Giants boast a stout defense led by the front four once again this year — he lost a fumble and threw two interceptions in a 24-20 home loss on Nov. 6 — and hopes that New England will learn from the mistakes they made earlier this season against the Giants.
“We’ll certainly look at that game, several times,” Brady told WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan Show. “Hopefully we can learn some lessons from the game. We really lost the turnover battle in that game, which really hurt us.”
The Giants turned two early miscues by Brady — an intercpetion and a lost fumble — into a 10-0 lead in the second quarter of that game in Foxborough. “You’re not going to beat the Giants turning the ball over four times,” he said.
Brady went on to praise Big Blue’s defense, calling them “very good,” and singling out the pass rush as one of the best in the NFL. He also was complimentary of the secondary and linebackers. Brady may be trying to kill the opposition with kindness, but he knows the real work will come on the field, not over the radio airwaves.
“I’m going to work as hard as I can the next two weeks to go out there and be prepared and hopefully to go out there and play my best game. Hopefully the best game I’ve ever played,” he said. That’s what I’m expecting. That’s what I expect to do and I know that’s what my teammates expect of me.”