FOXBORO -- The New England Patriots had five seconds to kill at the end of the fourth quarter in Sunday's Week 12 game against the Dallas Cowboys, and it looked like quarterback Tom Brady did his job.
Brady took the snap on 4th-and-15 and fired a pass high into the air and out of bounds. The ball was still in the air as the clock ticked down to one second, where it seemingly froze before the ball landed out of play, giving the Cowboys one more chance.
You might think having one second and 85 yards to go for the game-winning touchdown is too much of a challenge for the Cowboys, but don't tell that to the Patriots. It was just last season they lost on a last-second 69-yard play against the Dolphins now known as the "Miami Miracle." The loss helped prevent the Patriots from earning the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.
The Cowboys could not engineer the same miracle play, and the Patriots escaped with a 13-9 win to improve to 10-1 atop the AFC standings.
Brady, in his postgame press conference, couldn't explain why time didn't expire on his team's final offensive play.
"I don't know. I couldn't figure it out," Brady said. "I've never seen that before. It was still in the air when they stopped the clock. I don't know. Everyone says the Patriots get advantages. I don't know about that."
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The last part of that answer, "Everyone says the Patriots get advantages," was the most interesting, particularly when a brutal tripping penalty called on Cowboys offensive lineman Travis Frederick negated a first down on Dallas' second-to-last drive with two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys punted two plays later, and they never got another good chance for the win.
The Patriots ultimately made fewer mistakes than the Cowboys and deserved to win, and it's easy to sympathize with Brady's frustration on a night where his offense had a ton of trouble moving the ball and picking up first downs.
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