Tom Brady was still great in Super Bowl 52. He just wasn’t heroic this time

In Super Bowl 49, Tom Brady led his team back from a back-breaking end zone interception and a fourth-quarter deficit to stun the Seattle Seahawks in a dramatic win. In Super Bowl 51, Brady led his team back from a back-breaking pick-six and a fourth-quarter deficit to stun the Atlanta Falcons.

In Super Bowl 52, Brady played the most prolific Super Bowl the world has ever seen to lead his team to a fourth-quarter lead. Then, when he was called on to get it back, he unleashed his back-breaking turnover at the worst possible time, losing to the underdog Philadelphia Eagles.

Brandon Graham’s clutch sack, the first of the game from either team, knocked the ball from Brady’s hand before he could uncork a heave downfield. Derek Barnett picked the ball up effortlessly and ran to the New England 38-yard line, and suddenly the Eagles’ precarious 38-33 lead was safe. Three runs and a field goal later, Philadelphia’s win percentage spiked to 99.8 percent.

It was a disappointing and unexpected finish for the team which had made playoff comebacks commonplace. Brady was just two weeks removed from rallying the Patriots from a 20-10 fourth-quarter deficit in the AFC title game. In the past five seasons, he’d led 16 game-winning drives in the final 15 minutes.

But those furious rallies and that undeniable, unquantifiable quality of clutchness that’s made Brady the greatest quarterback of all time has also covered up some big mistakes. On Sunday, it just came so late he didn’t have enough time to fix it.

Brady’s play in the Super Bowl has been superlative. He’s thrown 18 touchdowns in eight appearances against some of the best defenses the NFL has to offer. Without him behind center, the Patriots are no dynasty, and his impact on the game can’t be overstated.

But you’d have to go back to 2002 — his second season in the NFL and first appearance in the big game — to find a Super Bowl in which he hasn’t turned the ball over. That includes:

Before Sunday, only one of those turnovers — an interception against the Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII — came in the fourth quarter. None came after 7:48 in the game. That left Brady with plenty of time to correct his mistake, using it as fuel in furious second-half performances. In eight Super Bowl fourth quarters, Brady has led 12 scoring drives. He’s thrown six touchdowns with just one INT.

That’s erased his momentum-swinging mistakes. Against Seattle, his end zone pick cost his team at least three points; he made up for it by rallying the Patriots from a 10-point deficit in the final 13 minutes.

Against Carolina, a red zone interception and the Panthers’ touchdown that followed led to at least a 10-point swing; he countered that with a touchdown drive and two-point conversion to put his team back up by seven points, then drove 37 yards with 1:08 to play to set up a game-winning Adam Vinatieri field goal.

And his comeback from a 28-3 deficit against the Falcons has been so thoroughly dissected it deserves its own graduate-level thesis.

But Brady played at a high level throughout the first 3.5 quarters of Super Bowl 52 thanks to solid work from his blockers. When he got the ball back trailing 38-33 with 2:21 to play, he’d already sliced up the Eagles with a 25-of-40 passing performance for 465 yards and three touchdowns. One alligator-armed drop of a Danny Amendola pass aside, it looked like Brady was bound to get through his first Super Bowl in 16 years without a devastating mistake.

Brady’s myriad comebacks gave hope to fans across the six states in New England and a familiar feeling of despair for those watching everywhere else. The Patriots had 2:21 and two timeouts to deliver a lead-changing touchdown. That’s where each of their last three drives had ended in a game that seemed destined to crown whomever had the ball last as its winner.

It was second-and-2 at the New England 33 when the reigning NFL MVP took a snap from the shotgun formation and watched his wideouts carve out space downfield. Brady had stepped up in the pocket to avoid the Eagles’ pass rush all game, buying time to allow his receivers to create gaps in the coverage that led to 14 receptions of 15 yards or more. When the pressure came, he moved forward to avoid it. After searching for targets in the middle of the field, he settled on Rob Gronkowski, who was open near the right sideline for a potential 7-plus yard gain.

But Brady wasn’t just dealing with pressure from defensive end — and former teammate — Chris Long’s edge rush. Graham, lined up as a tackle in Philly’s 4-3 front, burst through the seam and followed Long’s tracks. Just when it looked like the veteran quarterback would escape, Graham’s momentum was stopped by right tackle LaAdrian Waddle, who inadvertently helped push the rush back into Brady’s face. He got his right hand up just in time, and what looked like a sure first down turned into the game’s biggest turnover.

By the time Brady got the ball back, he had 58 seconds to go 91 yards with zero timeouts. While he took what the Eagles’ prevent defense allowed him to push the ball near midfield, his Hail Mary attempt fell to the turf as time expired, dropping his record to 5-3 all time in the Super Bowl.

Brady had only once thrown for 500 yards or more in his career. That was back in 2011. He did it, at age 40, in Super Bowl 52. He did it despite missing his top two wide receivers, Julian Edelman (missed the entire season with a torn ACL) and Brandin Cooks (missed the final 43 minutes of the game with a potential concussion). He’s thrown for nearly 1,000 yards in his last two Super Bowls alone.

Brady’s relentless offense kept New England’s championship hopes alive, counter-punching throughout a game the Patriots didn’t lead in until there were only nine minutes left. His long drives gave a frequently crushed defense time to recover on the sideline, though it rarely mattered. His stature in the pocket nearly turned the Eagles’ biggest weakness — an underdeveloped secondary — into its fatal flaw.

But because his regular Super Bowl turnover happened at the worst possible moment, it was all for nothing. Sunday was opposite day for Brady, who played the game of his life, but just didn’t have enough time to turn one simple mistake into the motivator that pushed his team to greatness once more.