Patriots vs. Giants: Determining How Much Blame Tom Brady Deserves for Loss

There is plenty of blame to go around for the New England Patriots' 21-17 loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI. Nationally it seems experts have decided to focus on three guys: quarterback Tom Brady, receiver Wes Welker and head coach Bill Belichick. While none of those guys had their best night on Sunday, how much blame really belongs to Brady, the man under center?

Brady certainly didn't play as well as he would have liked to. While he didn't necessarily have a bad game, he wasn't as good as we've seen him in big moments in the past. 

For a stretch during the second and third quarters, the 34-year-old signal-caller was almost perfect. He completed 16-straight passes, and had touchdown tosses to Danny Woodhead and Aaron Hernandez. He looked fantastic carving up New York's defense. Then as soon as the fourth quarter began, we saw a different guy out there.

He misfired on several throws, including an ill-advised deep ball to tight end Rob Gronkowski that was intercepted by linebacker Chase Blackburn, and a pass that was behind a wide open Welker 20 yards downfield. While the throw to Welker should have probably been caught, Brady was off target and made it difficult for his sure-handed receiver to haul it in.

Brady wasn't perfect, but expecting him to do better than his 27-of-41 performance for 276 yards, two touchdowns and one interception might have been asking too much against the Giants. The thing is, his receivers didn't step up to help him down the stretch.

Belichick gets most of the blame from me, though not for the reason many others are questioning him. I would have never challenged the catch Mario Manningham made along the sidelines late in the game. I thought it was obvious from the first shot that Manningham clearly got both feet in bounds and maintained control of the ball.

That late in the game, with Eli Manning's history of leading New York to comeback wins, I would have preserved all of my timeouts to give Brady as much time as possible at the end.

I know some will say he had to take that chance, but I really thought his clock management over the final three minutes was puzzling. With how his secondary has struggled all season and how the Giants, Manning and his receivers have come through time and again, I would have attempted to allow them to score the final touchdown one play earlier and saved as many timeouts as possible.