The evolution of Tom Brady through 12 under-appreciated performances – Patriots Wire

For a moment, four games into the 2014 season, it seemed that Tom Bradys Patriots career may be nearing its end.

The team got off to a sour 2-2 start, and to make matters worse, rookie QB Jimmy Garoppolo, a second-round pick from that years draft, played well in garbage time in the Kansas City Chiefs 41-14 shellacking of the Patriots in Arrowhead Stadium on national television in Week 4.

You know what comes next.

On to Cincinnati, the AFC Divisional Playoff win over Baltimore, Malcolm Butler and Super Bowl 49, 28-3 in Super Bowl 51, Super Bows 52 and 53, and then Bradys two-season run in Tampa Bay where he went out on the top of his game.

With the ascension of Twitter and other social media channels into our everyday lives in the mid-2010s, Bradys historic run from 2014 and on is still widely discussed, and social media posts on NFL, Patriots and other Twitter accounts look back on those games quite often.

So the point of this piece was to uncover some Brady games that you might have forgotten, that help tell the story of his ascension into the greatest quarterback of all-time.

One game that stood out in 2014 was Bradys last loss as a full-game starter that season. A 26-21 defeat to Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers in Lambeau Field.

Brady battled back and forth with Rodgers in the frozen tundra, hitting Brandon LaFell for two impressive touchdown throws, before Rodgers eventually ran out the clock on New England late with a first-down throw that sent Brady into a cussing frenzy on the sideline.

The loss showed Bradys fiery, competitive edge that fueled him his entire career, including the rest of this 2014 season, and all that much-discussed success that came after it.

After this game, Brady would face Rodgers three more times, and Brady would win all three contests, including the 2020 NFC Championship Game in Green Bay when Brady was a member of the Bucs.

Brady only won two of his seven Super Bowl rings from the time period discussed in this piece from 2003 to late 2014. But those years, with all of those wins and defeats, helped set the stage for the greatest late-career act this sport, or possible any team sport in North America, has ever seen.

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The evolution of Tom Brady through 12 under-appreciated performances - Patriots Wire