Tom Brady Getting Sandwich Sacked Is a Helluva Photo

Tom Brady was sacked by Mike Neal and Mike Daniels in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Packers, a play that turned 3rd-and-9 into 4th-and-18 and a subsequent missed 47-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski. With a five-point lead, Green Bay got the ball back and would never relinquish it. “It was a big play,” said Neal, via ESPN Wisconsin’s Jason Wilde. “I needed it, he [probably Daniels, but I prefer to think he meant Brady] needed it, the team needed it, it was at the right time of the game.”

This exclamation point was emblematic of a game that the Packers won not just on the arm of Aaron Rodgers — who threw for 368 yards and two touchdowns in a performance that looked eerily routine (about the hundredth time in his career that he’s made anonymous scouts eat their words)– but on the backs of key defensive stops.

Though it’s certainly a possibility, any proclamation that this was a Super Bowl preview is obviously premature. The Packers and Patriots have been the two best teams for the past two months, but it’s been rare in the NFL over the past decade or so for the best team at Thanksgiving to win the championship. (Last year’s Seahawks are a notable exception.) But, if it was indeed a sneak peek, and a hacky Boston columnist is to be believed, New England was just using yesterday’s dress rehearsal to lull Green Bay into a false sense of security.

[Photo via Chris Humphreys/USA Today Sports]