Krause: Brady imperfect against Chargers, but still good enough to win

The great ones may not play that way 100 percent of the time, but when it all comes down to one pitch, one foul shot, one breakaway, or one quarter, you’ll find them standing tall.That’s where New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was Sunday. Standing tall. Granted, he had a lot of people propping him up at times. His defense, which looked like Swiss cheese a month ago against the New York Giants, tightened considerably and kept the Patriots in a game they could easily have been blown out of (imagine if those four field goals San Diego had by the middle of the third quarter were touchdowns and extra points!).And his running game – officially declared nonexistent halfway through the season – rushed for 149 yards (122 of them by Laurence Maroney).Conversely, Randy Moss was held to one catch again, which means that the team’s primary weapon – for the second straight week – never really got fired.This left it up to Brady, who may not have played the game of his life, but managed it as well as he’s managed any game in his career.What else can you say when your team holds onto the ball for the final 9:13 of the game?Brady threw three interceptions – the third one about as excruciating as a pick can be. The Patriots were lurking down at the goal line, all set to score a touchdown that would have put them up, 21-12. But instead of hitting Benjamin Watson in the back of the end zone, he hit San Diego defensive back Antonio Cromartie instead.”I lost track of where he was,” Brady said sheepishly after the game. “That’s what (the Chargers) do. They make you pay. It’s a difficult defense to play against. They challenge you in a lot of ways.”We’ve certainly seen plenty of instances where these things can have disastrous effects on a team. We’ve also seen plenty of instances where the great ones buckle up their chinstraps and get steely.Guess which description fits Tom Terrific? After the interception, Brady was 8-for-8 with a touchdown pass (on the next possession after the interception) to Wes Welker.Maybe someone else would have hung his head and lost confidence. Not Tom.At the end of the day, while you couldn’t call this a Brady classic, it was a functional enough game for the Patriots to win. He still had two touchdown passes, and he still hit some critical third-down plays that helped keep the Patriots’ offense on the field for more than 33 minutes.”I think,” he said, “that we made enough plays to win.”What also makes this fourth AFC championship in seven years such a nice story is that two of the Patriots’ more unsung heroes – Laurence Maroney and Kevin Faulk – had a huge role in it. Maroney had 122 yards on 25 carries and was a rock as the Patriots ran out the clock at the end of he game.And Faulk may have had the catch of his career in the fourth quarter, as part of that game-ending possession, diving, catching the ball inches from the ground, and rolling over and stretching out to make the first down.”I saw the ball and just dove for it,” he said. “It was just a natural reaction. Nobody touched me, so the reaction was to keep moving.”Said Maroney, “Sometimes, it gets to that point in a game where you have to put your head down and keep running.”Coach Bill Belichick called the game a “total team effort,” which is what coaches always say when their teams win. But this one might actually fit the description. There wasn’t a phase of the game where the Pats didn’t come up big in one way or another. The defense kept the Chargers out of the end zone, the special teams unit put together some terrific coverage on kicks and punts, and the backfield (“We’ve been hearing all year how we don’t have a backfield,” Faulk said) has become a force as the Pats head to the Super Bowl.But with all of that, do not underestimate the role Brady played. He struggled as he hasn’t struggled all season. But when he had to stare up from that abyss he must have felt he was in after that third interception, he had the strength to climb out and do what he al