New England vs Seattle final score: Tom Brady’s four TD’s leads Patriots to 28-24 win over Seahawks in Super Bowl 49

A record-breaking performance from Tom Brady and a clutch interception from the New England Patriots was enough to defeat the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 49 in an instant classic.

Tom Brady turned in a record-breaking performance to win his fourth Super Bowl and Malcolm Butler came up with the interception of the century as the Patriots won Super Bowl 49 as the Seahawks lost in their repeat bid.

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The Super Bowl 49 matchup between the Patriots and Seahawks looked like a stellar matchup of the top two teams in the NFL that would give fans an exciting finale to the season, but the opening quarter flew by without many fireworks or points for an inauspicious start.

Seattle’s defense made the first big play at the end of the first quarter with the Patriots mixing in runs to LeGarrette Blount and short passes to get into the red zone, but Jeremy Lane picked Brady off in the end zone on 3rd-and-6.

The Patriots had the perfect drive going before the turnover and dominated the time of possession with Seattle only running three plays in the opening quarter before Lane came away with the first turnover of the game. Lane injured his arm on the return and was knocked out for the rest of the game.

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As much as New England tried to play keep away from Seattle, Russell Wilson didn’t have one pass attempt in the first quarter, the Patriots weren’t able to capitalize with a crooked number on the scoreboard.

The second quarter produced different results with Julian Edelman making a 29-yard reception on 3rd-and-9 to get the Patriots on the door step of the goal line.

Edelman went right where Lane would have been but with him out Tharold Simon gave up the long gain. Two plays later Brady went right at Simon and hit Brandon LaFell for an 11-yard touchdown to give New England a 7-0 lead with 9:47 left in the half.

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The Seahawks secondary commanded the attention entering the game after leading the NFL in passing defense, but the Patriots more than held their own in the first half. Wilson didn’t complete his first pass until 5:44 remained in the half, the second longest it took for a team to get their first completion.

But like a hitter in a cold streak Wilson needed one to get going and his next one for 44-yards to Chris Matthews to get the Seahawks in position to tie the game. After not giving the media any answers during the week, Marshawn Lynch let his play speak for him with the game-tying touchdown run from three yards out with 2:16 left in the first half.

The Patriots scored 66 points in the last two minutes of the first half, the most in the NFL in the regular season and the Seahawks were victimized by their clutch play to close out the first 30 minutes.

Brady led the Patriots on an eight-play, 80-yard drive that took 1:45 off the clock and give them a 14-7 lead at halftime after Rob Gronkowski beat K.J. Wright for a 22-yard touchdown. This was Brady’s 11th Super Bowl touchdown to tie him with Joe Montana for the most in NFL history.

Seattle took over with 31 seconds remaining on the ensuing possession and after not much offensive success in the first 29:29, the Seahawks managed to tie the game after driving 80 yards in five plays. A 19-yard run from Robert Turbin followed by a 17-yard scamper from Wilson put the Seahawks in field goal range. After a 23-yard reception to Ricardo Lockette got Seattle to the NE 21 they started thinking seven instead of three.

With six seconds left in the half and Seattle at the 11-yard line Pete Carroll bypassed the short field goal, and the gamble paid off, with a touchdown strike to Matthews to tie the game at 14.

Seattle had the ball to start the second half after Katy Perry’s halftime show and Matthews continued to make a name for himself. Two weeks after recovering the onside kick against the Packers in the NFC Championship Game, the former Foot Locker employee came up large.

Matthews had a 45-yard catch to get the Seahawks in the red zone, but the Patriots defense stopped Lynch on 3rd-and-1 from the 8-yard line to hold them to a Steven Hauschka field goal to take a 17-14 lead.

The first possession of the second half ended in Brady throwing his second interception of the game after All-Pro middle linebacker Bobby Wagner who read Brady’s eyes and broke on the ball to pick off the ball intended for Gronkowski. Six plays after Wagner’s interception,

Wilson found a wide-open Doug Baldwin on the right half of the end zone for his first catch of the game on a play action pass from three yards out to give Seattle a 24-14 lead.

Brady had thrown two interceptions in his previous five Super Bowl appearances.

The third quarter ended with teams trading punts as the Seahawks took a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter where they are 18-0 over the last three seasons when entering the fourth with a double-digit lead.

With Seattle riding the wave of momentum from a strong commanding third quarter, the Patriots needed a scoring drive or risked the game getting out of hand at the onset of the fourth quarter.

Brady orchestrated a nine-play, 68-yard drive with Julian Edelman catching two passes for 42 yards on the drive that ended with Danny Amendola’s four-yard touchdown reception to make it a 24-21 game with 7:55 remaining.

Chants of Brady-Brady-Brady echoed down from University of Phoenix as Brady and the Patriots offense cam eon the field after a quick three-and-out from the Seahawks with them looking to take the lead.

Brady has an NFL record eight game-winning drives in postseason history, the most in NFL history, and he was unflappable in the closing minutes. Brady led the Patriots on a 10-play, 64-yard drive that took 4:50 off the clock with Gronkowski and Shane Vereen doing the heavy lifting to set up Edelman for the three-yard touchdown to take a 28-24 lead with 2:02 remaining in the game.

He became the sixth quarterback in Super Bowl history to throw at least four touchdowns in the game, the previous five all won the game.

The Seahawks were poised for an epic comeback in the last minute after a miraculous circus catch by Jermaine Kearse made it seem like they were going to repeat as Super Bowl champions.

After Lynch ran the ball to the one yard line all the Seahawks had to do was hand the ball to Beast Mode and they would have been the first team to repeat as champions since the Patriots won in 2003-2004.

But what followed was one of the biggest collapses in Super Bowl history after Wilson dropped back to pass and was intercepted by Malcolm Butler on the goal line to make the play of the year and win the Super Bowl for the Patriots.

Brady tied Montana and Terry Bradshaw for the most Super Bowl wins by a quarterback with four Super Bowl wins and takes the MVP after throwing a Super Bowl record 37 completions on 50 attempts for 328 yards and four touchdowns in the 28-24 victory.

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