Tom Brady Suffers Ankle Sprain

Brady took a pounding as the Patriots fell to 12-4 – down to the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs – getting sacked twice and knocked down at least half a dozen times, including three times on one series.

“Nothing over the last six weeks is going to matter”, Brady said. “300 pounds, he just collapses the back of your leg. There’s going to be some residual damage from that”. It’s part of football. But when he finally got past the line of scrimmage, Tannehill definitely picked the right time. “I always want to be in there fighting with my teammates”. Believe me, I’ll be doing everything I can to be out there.

I asked him point blank: was this a 100-percent effort to win today?

Though Brady returned to the game after his ankle was retaped, he eventually was replaced by backup Jimmy Garoppolo on the Pats’ final drive inside two minutes and trailing by 10 points.

“Well, I guess in 2016 we’re undefeated”, said Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross. I wanted to stay in there and play yesterday and see if I could do some stuff to help our team….

– The offense looked atrocious against the Dolphins but I do have confidence we could see a quick turnaround. No Patriots receivers had more than two receptions on the afternoon against a Dolphins (6-10) team that was playing for just pride under interim head coach Dan Campbell.

“We’ll find out where we are in a couple weeks”. This team came out to play and they made the plays they had to, we overcame penalties and it says a lot, I’m proud of those guys.

The Patriots have a great chance to get back to the Super Bowl – as long as their best players are healthy enough to play at a high level.

-Cornerback Justin Coleman (concussion) was inactive in Miami, missing his sixth game of the season after previously dealing with a hand injury. Brandon LaFell, Scott Chandler, Keyshawn Martin and Chris Harper have all had forgettable stretches. The only problem was that the ground game was utterly ineffective, as it registered a paltry 70 yards on almost 30 carries. He said he “didn’t know” why the first half included so few passes. He finished with 12 completions in 23 attempts for a season-low 134 yards.

Brady needed medical attention after taking a big hit in the second quarter of Sunday’s game against the Dolphins. He threw an accurate deep ball on more than one occasion. TE Jordan Cameron capped off the series with a touchdown to move Miami into the lead 17-10.

-PASS DEFENSE: D. This group had more than its share of issues the last couple weeks. Running back James White would emerge as a factor in the Patriots offence.

Tom finished third in the National Football League in passing yards at the end of the season with 4,770 yards.