NFL

Patriots’ Brady ‘still can’t watch’ Super Bowl loss to Giants

David Tyree’s memorable catch in Super Bowl XLII has been replayed thousands of times in the four years since the Giants beat the Patriots.

Tom Brady has spent that time trying to avoid it.

The Patriots quarterback said the highlights from that game, which ended New England’s perfect 2007 season, remain too painful.

“I still can’t watch highlights of that game, I think that’s just the way it is,” Brady told WEEI on Monday morning, after leading the Patriots to a win over the Ravens in the AFC Championship.

“You get to the end, and we had a great opportunity there and really squandered it because we didn’t play our very best. You realize in this game that you’re playing the best competition in the league [and] everything is on the table.”

It was the first of three straight playoff defeats for the Patriots, who lost to the Ravens and Jets the following two seasons. But that skid ended when they routed the Broncos in the Divisional round a week ago, and followed that with a 23-20 win over the Ravens on Sunday.

Now the Patriots are back in the Super Bowl, and get a chance to avenge that loss to the Giants, who beat the 49ers in the NFC Championship, 20-17 in overtime.

Brady compared the resurgent Giants defense to the Ravens. Brady said he played poorly Sunday despite getting the victory.

“It’s a little bit different. They’re two totally different defenses,” Brady said in his weekly spot on the Boston radio station.

“The Giants have a very good defense, they’ve got guys that can cover, one of the best pass rushes that you’ll face in the league, very physical linebackers, they tackle well. It’s a very good defense. We didn’t score a lot of points against them last time.”

That last time came in Week 9 when the Giants went to New England and upset the Patriots, 24-20. The Giants would follow that victory with four straight losses; the Patriots have not lost since.

“We’ll certainly look at that game, several times,” Brady said. “You see matchups. You see how your guys match up against their guys — route-running and blocking and so forth. It will have absolutely zero impact on the game, but at the same time, hopefully we can learn some lessons from that game.

“We really lost the turnover battle in that game, which really hurt us. It was a great game. Eli [Manning] drove the team down and they scored with just a few seconds left. It was a great game. it sets up for a great rematch between two teams who have earned the right to represent their conferences in the Super Bowl.”