FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Lesser mortals would have folded after the breathtaking, momentum-swinging play that ended the first half between the Jets and Patriots yesterday.
Tom Brady treated it like a piece of gum stuck to his shoe.
Intercepted in the end zone by name-calling nemesis Antonio Cromartie on the final snap, the Patriots quarterback couldn’t have shrugged off the shocking miscue any faster if his UGGs endorsement depended on it en route to an eventual 30-21 win at Gillette Stadium.
Brady showed the calm you would expect of a three-time NFL MVP and Super Bowl winner, driving the Patriots 80 yards in just four plays after the second-half kickoff to take a 17-7 lead and let the Jets know there would be no repeat of last January’s playoff upset on the same field.
PHOTOS: PATRIOTS BEAT JETS, 30-21
That drive was just the start of a masterful third-quarter by Brady, who overcame the interception and a season-high four sacks in typically methodical fashion to produce his 30th consecutive regular-season home victory.
And also in typical Brady fashion, he was ridiculously modest about it afterward.
“I thought we did a decent job at times, but I thought we left a lot of points out there, too,” said Brady, who had testily cut short his weekly news conference this week when asked one too many times about Cromartie.
That home win streak is an NFL record, but Brady owns a lot of those. What was more remarkable was how he responded to the end of one of those incredible streaks yesterday — interceptions in the red zone.
It’s hard to believe, but until Cromartie caught Brady’s deflected pass in the end zone on the final play of the second quarter, the New England passer had not been intercepted inside the opponent’s 20-yard line at Gillette Stadium in his entire career.
Yes, Brady’s red-zone line at home was 325 passes and 91 touchdowns without suffering a pick in the regular season until tight end Aaron Hernandez’s deflection ended up in Cromartie’s hands.
“Tom’s always positive,” Hernandez said. “He just told me, ‘Don’t worry about it, let it go.’ When you know he’s not going to panic, that makes just makes everybody more confident.”
Considering Cromartie’s play kept the Patriots from taking a 10-point lead into halftime and was by a player who appeared to get in Brady’s head with taunting comments before last year’s playoff game, it seemed like a potential turning point for the Jets.
But Brady is a likely first-ballot Hall of Famer for a reason, and he bounced back in impressive fashion despite constant pressure and a repeat of Rex Ryan’s strategy last January of flooding the field with defensive backs to confuse him.
No such luck.
Brady finished with 321 yards on 24-of-33 completions, which was below his record-setting yardage pace through the first four games, but there was little doubt who was in command in the decisive second half.
“Brady’s Brady, man,” said wideout Deion Branch, who caught Brady’s lone TD pass. “You know he’s never going to panic, and you know he’s always going to make sure everybody’s in the right place. He’s the best. That’s all you can say.”