Tom Brady, Julian Edelman have near-identical reactions to Patriots’ game-losing play vs. Raiders

BOSTON — You might remember a video from a years back, one from NFL Films that showed Tom Brady and Julian Edelman functioning on the bench in an almost synchronized fashion.

It was a peek into the cosmic connection the quarterback and receiver had between them.

Now, even though they’ve been apart for three years, they’re still clearly operating on the same wavelength.

The former Patriots quarterback and the former Patriots receiver were both asked about New England’s ignominious ending in Las Vegas on Sunday, a double-lateral turnover play that is sure to live on in infamy, in the realm of the Butt Fumble and the Colts’ unforgettable fake punt play vs. New England. Rhamondre Stevenson and Jakobi Meyers were both desperately trying to make a play, but it obviously backfired in the worst way imaginable.

Interestingly, both Brady and Edelman had almost the same explanation and reaction to the play.

Here’s what Edelman said on “Inside The NFL”:

That was a complete brain fart. I don’t know how to defend that. Jakobi came out and he took the claim and he said he went out on a limb and did it himself. And it’s one of those things where Rhamondre threw the ball to him, and probably something flipped in his head, and he’s like, ‘Oh, we’re trying to get it in desperado situation, let’s make a play.’ And I feel terrible for him. He’s owned it. But that’s not what you want to do.

They didn’t lose the game just on that play. You could look at like 20 different plays — maybe the blocked punt, maybe being on the 1-yard line and throwing the ball and not scoring [instead of] running the ball on the 1-yard line with one of the best backs in the league. Like there’s a lot of things that you could look back in this game — it wasn’t just that play — which it’s just been a very uncharacteristic-type year for the team.

And here’s what Brady said on his “Let’s Go!” podcast:

I saw Rhamondre got the ball — it was a great run. I’m sure the Raiders at that point were like, ‘Tackle him, tackle him!’ Then they pitched it to Jakobi, and Jakobi’s trying to make it happen. And next thing you know, Jakobi got it, and in the moment you might lose your train of thought because you lose what’s really going on in that situation. You think, ‘Oh, someone tossed me the ball, I gotta make a play.’ And sometimes that’s the worst thing, when you say, ‘I gotta make a play. I gotta make a play.’ And the play was obviously to go to overtime, but man, that’s sports. And it goes from ‘Oh my God, tackle that guy,’ to ‘Oh my god, we got the ball!’ And then the Patriots are saying ‘tackle that guy.’ And they couldn’t get him on the ground. So it’s crazy sports.

…

There’s probably — look, there’s a lot of reasons why you win or lose. And I know everyone always points to one play and that particular play because it was so incredible. They’re going to show it probably forever. But there were probably other plays in the game, which, knowing Coach Belichick, he’s probably like, ‘Guys, these are the 20 other things we could’ve done to win the game, too,’ Which is part of his great coaching.

Brady spent 20 years being coached by Bill Belichick, while Edelman spent 12 years getting that same coaching. The staple of Belichick’s organization during that time was consistency. Belichick always sought to be the same person every day, no matter what happened the day before and no matter what awaited the team the next day. And a major part of that consistency was in the messaging to players.

In this case, both Brady and Edelman remember quite well what Belichick would tell the team after such moments.

They’re also certainly right. If not for the blocked punt, it’s probably not a tight game late. If not for the Patriots’ inability to score from the goal line — the first team to fail to score vs. the Raiders in a goal-to-go situation in 33 tries — then it might not have been a tight game late. If not for allowing a fourth-and-10 conversion on the Raiders’ game-tying drive, the Patriots would have won. And so on.

It is funny that after all these years, two of Belichick’s best pupils still remember precisely what they’d be hearing if they were still on the team.