The New England Patriots overcame a 10-point fourth quarter deficit in the AFC Championship Game against the Jacksonville Jaguars to secure their second straight trip to the Super Bowl.
Star quarterback Tom Brady led the charge in the comeback despite dealing with a thumb injury that required 12 stitches. Following the game, head coach Bill Belichick spoke highly of Brady while at the same time downplaying the significance of it.
Bill Belichick on Tom Brady: "He's a tough guy, we all know that. But we're not talking about open heart surgery here" pic.twitter.com/omGoydmIgy
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) January 22, 2018
There was plenty of scrutiny surrounding the condition of Brady's right hand over the last few days, especially with the decision to don a glove on both the practice field and during Friday's press conference. On top of that, the Patriots and the 40-year-old chose to deflect any questions concerning the injury leading up to the game.
That said, it didn't appear to limit Brady in any manner on the field as he put together a strong performance 26-of-38 passes for 290 yards along with a pair of touchdowns with no interceptions. Much of that production came in the fourth quarter completing 9-of-14 passes for 138 yards with two touchdowns to overcome a 10-point deficit.
Brady has proven to be quite a durable player throughout his career since becoming the full-time starter back in 2001 as he has started every other contest that he has been able to play while taking the field in all 16 regular-season games 14 times. The only he missed time came during the 2008 season where he suffered a torn ACL in the first game of that campaign.
The two weeks from now until Super Bowl LII should provide Brady time to heal completely from the injury, effectively eliminating it as a possible storyline heading into the game.
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