FOXBORO – The play looked rather routine. Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi tackled running back Dominic Rhodes, who had just caught a second-quarter Peyton Manning screen pass.
But when Bruschi popped up, he turned toward the Indianapolis bench and presented it with another surprise on a stunning day. He showed it the football.
“I hit him and put my hands in there and wrestled it away from him,” Bruschi said after the game. “Talk about takeaways.
That is a takeaway right there. Who is going to get it? I got it that time.”
Save a two-minute drill at the end of the half, Bruschi and the Patriots defense got the Colts every time. New England held its visitors to its lowest point total since Manning arrived seven years ago and rolled Indianapolis 20-3 in yesterday’s AFC playoff game at Gillette Stadium.
As usual, Bruschi led the defense, forcing a fumble and recovering two. He also hopped and yapped after every big play, taunting some Colts he felt disrespected the Pats with well-publicized comments leading up to the game.
“That’s how he is, Johnny on the spot,” Pats linebacker Ted Johnson said. “When we’re all done playing, that’s how I’ll remember Tedy – a guy who made a lot of big plays and played with great energy.”
Yesterday’s set of big plays started when he wrestled with Rhodes. Reading the screen, Bruschi shed Colts center Jeff Saturday and hit Rhodes for what appeared to be a two-yard loss. But Bruschi wagged the ball toward the Colts sideline, and officials signaled Patriots possession, ending Indy’s best drive to that point.
In the fourth quarter, he helped seal the game in the secondary. Reggie Wayne caught a Manning pass over the middle and ran into Pats safety Rodney Harrison, whose hit jarred the ball loose. It had barely bounced before Bruschi fell on it.
Bruschi said he takes most pride in his consistency. A defensive captain, he twice won conference defensive player of the week honors and makes the calls up front in the Pats’ vaunted defense.
Still, he always seems to end up with the ball in big spots. A stadium poster shows an outline of Bruschi, ball in his right hand, sliding into the end zone with the lone touchdown in last year’s 12-0 home shutout of the Dolphins.
That knack for the big play returned yesterday and helped the Pats reach another AFC title game.
“It’s part of his personality,” Johnson said. “To do that, you need to be willing to take risks and not do everything by the book. That makes him really important to our group.”