Tom Brady Plays a Half in Patriots’ Preseason Finale

In preseason standards, this was a surprising sight since teams rarely play their starters in these games.

2016 third-round draft pick QB Jacoby Brissett played the entire second half.

See you again in five weeks, Tom Brady.

The New England Patriots and New York Giants figured to engage in a fairly mundane fourth and final preseason game Thursday night at MetLife Stadium, but an appearance from Tom Brady flipped the script in a hurry.

Cyrus Jones showed he still has some growth to make as an National Football League corner, getting beaten for a 59-yard slant pattern by Tavarres King on a pass from Ryan Nassib for a touchdown in the third quarter that put the Giants on top, 10-6.

“I was happy I was able to play as much as I did”, Brady said.

CB Leon Hall (concussion) did not play but he was on the field working out prior to the game, a good sign that he will be cleared for this week’s work heading into the opener.

The New England Patriots made a decision to go a different route when it came to Tom Brady’s four-game suspension. Brady did take a knee on the final snap before the half.

With another strong performance in hand, King will join fringe players across the league who await to hear about their future when rosters are cut to 53 men on Saturday.

“Playing chess with one of the best in the history of the game, they responded”, Giants coach Ben McAdoo said of Brady, who was complimentary of Beckham.

The Patriots open the season on Sunday, September 11 on the road against the Arizona Cardinals. On Aug. 27 against the New York Jets, King caught two passes on three targets for 38 yards and two touchdowns.

Brady completed 16-of-26 passes for 166 yards, one touchdown and one interception and departed with a 6-3 lead.

Brady looked alternately rusty (he threw an interception on his second series and was not accurate with several early passes) and excellent (his perfectly lofted pass to running back DJ Foster was good for 30 yards and he hit Keshawn Martin with a 7-yard touchdown pass for his only score of the night).

Rawls carried twice for 8 yards in his first game in more than eight months since breaking his ankle and the Seahawks finished the preseason by beating the Oakland Raiders.

The last time Brady played in a preseason finale was 2014, when he held for an extra point just to see if he can do it.

The New York Giants wrapped up their preseason as they have in years past, against the New England Patriots.

Then Brady had his jersey delivered to Beckham behind the scenes, as team policy doesn’t allow him to do it on the field.

Patriots: Garoppolo, Rob Ninkovich, Rob Gronkowski, Danny Amendola, Jabaal Sheard, Jonathan Cooper. Among their healthy scratches were quarterback Eli Manning, receiver Odell Beckham Jr., cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul. But Brady himself wasn’t ideal either, as the star quarterback finished the night with a lower passer rating than backup Jacoby Brissett, at just 76.8, and he wasn’t able to find the end-zone in the team’s second red zone opportunity. He also showed up on all special-teams units, with Belichick saying on 98.5 The Sports Hub before the game, “I think he’s going to help us”.