Just moments before the Patriots offense took the field, Rams receiver Ricky Proehl completed the St. Louis comeback to tie the game at 17 with less than two minutes to go.

Bill Belichick, a master of football coaching strategy, has managed to put together an unbelievable game plan, putting the Patriots in a position to do something no one thought possible, but at this moment, it looks like New England's incredible play may be turned into another footnote to a tremendous Rams season.

Far above the field in the Superdome press box, sports writers began typing up their stories about the inevitable Rams victory in overtime that was sure to come. In no time at all, the upstart Patriots would be headed back to the locker room, with the phrase "moral victory" echoing around the country throughout the entire offseason as consolation for their efforts against the big bad Rams.

The Greatest Show on Turf, having experienced a couple of speed bumps on their way to a 2nd championship in 3 years, seemed like the team of destiny.

As it turned out however, the actual team of destiny was standing on the opposite sideline, and instead of running out the clock and playing for overtime like everyone expected them to do, Tom Brady, the young quarterback from Michigan made all the right moves to get his team in position to pull off one of the biggest upsets in pro football history.

Play #1 - 1st & 10 / -17 / LH / 1:21 / 4Q

Brady and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis are wary of taking shots down the field right away, especially given sudden resurgence of the St. Louis pass rush late in the 4th quarter, as well as the particular situation they find themselves in. Rams defensive coordinator Lovie Smith is not taking any chances on this play, and this end-of-game situation with the score tied and New England on the ropes gives him a chance to put the Tampa-2 philosophy he’s so fond of to work, with the goal of keeping everything in front of the defense, forcing the play into the short middle where the defense can make the tackle for a minimal gain and keep the clock moving.

In this case that’s exactly what happens, but not without a good amount of drama first.

Brady is eyeing the quick out to the far side of the field, and the route by the X receiver almost creates a rub on the outside. The in-breaking stem by the X receiver isn’t necessarily by design, but his job is to get vertical by whatever means necessary, or at least get out of the path of the out route from the slot receiver. He's working against a tough defensive back, who isn't letting him off easy, otherwise the wide receiver release would be a lot straighter coming off the line.

At the very least, this creates an opening for the receiver to get out of bounds in a hurry, but the idea is that he catches the ball and turn the corner, getting up the sideline.

The in-breaking stem from the receiver puts the X on a path to get inside leverage on the FS to create an alley, then all of a sudden it’s off to the races.

Instead what happens is that Brady’s protection starts to break down, and he’s not sure about the throw, so he’s going to eat the ball if he has to.

It’s important to realize that at this point neither team has any timeouts, but the score is tied, so if Brady takes a sack here, it’s not ideal, but Belichick can run the football and run the clock out to go to overtime.

However just as the pass rush is closing in, Brady spots JR Redmond sitting down underneath running the checkdown route. Redmond picks up four yards, but the clock is ticking as he’s tackled inbounds, so Brady hurries up to the line of scrimmage and gets everyone lined up once again.

Play #2 - 2nd & 5 / -22 / LH / 0:57 / 4Q

The corners are playing so aggressive on the outside to re-route receivers away from the sidelines and into the middle of the field where Brady in forced to throw underneath to another checkdown (inbounds mind you) this time to Redmond again.

This particular route is not the check-release that we saw on the last play, but instead it’s a free-release, where he was planning to run into the middle of the defense no matter what.

The play they run here is a great concept to run in no-huddle situations after a gain like New England just had.

The reason why so many teams, including the Patriots, love this play in this situation is because with the corners playing so aggressively in the flat, and the Mike linebacker dropping to take away the deep middle of the field, the slot receivers end up on an island working against a linebacker/ nickel corner who has a noticeable disadvantage against them, whether it’s in the size or speed department.

In this situation, the receiver’s assignment is all about leverage and working off of the alignment of the defender, so as long as the receiver/ tight end is disciplined, and knows how to read the drop of the defender across from him, it’s very tough for him to be wrong.

It’s simple really.

The two outside receivers go deep and clear out space not only vertically but horizontally as well, forcing the corners to account for them and in the process opening up a little extra room for the slot receivers to maneuver underneath.

Once they get back on their assigned path, it opens up space in the seams for the inside receivers on the option routes. Their job is to get open against the overhang defender, by working and getting leverage on the defender dropping into that space. It’s similar to the way an offensive player who posts up on a defender down low in basketball.

There’s another reason why coaches love this play against Tampa 2 or other similar prevent schemes, and it’s because the slot receivers occupy the intermediate defenders in the seams, usually the back is completely undefended underneath, and New England takes advantage of it by releasing him quickly underneath.

The routes are run at an eight yard depth past the chains, which in turn opens up the coverage underneath for the throw to Redmond.

Play #3 - 2nd & 10 / -30 / MH / 0:41 4Q

Note: The ball was spiked on the previous down, but we will still refer to this play as Play #3

JR Redmond picks up the first down by stretching out his arms and driving outstretched and touching the football to the sidelines to just barely be able to stop the clock.

This is a great adjustment by the St. Louis defense to drop the nose tackle into the passing lane since New England lined up with that two-man grouping, almost like a bunch or a stacked receiver set except for the fact that no one is lined up on the line of scrimmage. The close proximity to the tackle box indicates that some kind of shallow in-breaking route packaged with some kind of vertical route is very likely.

The nose dropper is in perfect position to out off any route coming across the middle, and his main job is to disrupt the route rather than cover it all the way across the field.

The vertical route is designed to clear out the defense in the middle of the field, especially given the amount of Tampa coverage that the defense has been playing so far on this drive, with the middle linebacker dropping deep to take away any kind of route designed to find the vacancy between the two safeties.

For the third play in a row now, JR Redmond makes the play out of the backfield. After Brady sees the coverage to the strong side of the formation, he flips it to Redman, widening on the flare route, and finding a lot of open space in the alley initially. After the corner drops into the flat, Redmond makes him miss, before finally being forced to the sideline and making the play talked about earlier.

This drive is quickly becoming a how-to guide on the subject of understanding the situation and staying patient in the pocket.

Play #4 - 1st & 10 / +41 / LH / 0:33 4Q

At this point, Lovie Smith is tired of sitting back and allowing Brady time to find an open receiver underneath, so now that New England spikes the football, it allows the St. Louis defense time to regroup and send in a new blitz call.

Remember that this is still a few years before the no-huddle and fast-paced offensive attacks became commonplace in the NFL, so defenses mostly stayed simple on the back end and lacked much of the sophisticated adjustments against the no-huddle that they have in the "modern" NFL.

Even as the Rams tore up defenses across the league, they still made a habit of huddling on a regular basis, and certainly never approached the tempo that teams like Peyton Manning’s Colts or Brady’s later teams were known for.

There's a possible screw up here by the left tackle on the play. With so much potential pressure being signaled up at the line of scrimmage, with both the FS and the Will linebacker up near the line of scrimmage to the weak side, the left tackle should’ve expected some kind of pressure coming into the B gap and squeezed to close the space to give Brady more time. At the same time, this is a dropback pass, and the protection is designed accordingly. Brady needs to be cognizant of not allowing an easy path for the defensive end.

This is just as much about JR Redmond’s failure to scan the entire defense and be aware of the entire picture. Since the backer to his side dropped off into coverage, his eyes should at least peak to the left before he decides to run off into the route.

Brady is chased out of the pocket and throws the football away, keeping the drive alive and stopping the clock.

Play #5 - 3rd and 10 / -41 / LH / 0:29 4Q

Brady has been waiting for his chance, and he finally got it.

New England lines up and runs a very similar play to the one they called on the previous down, this time switching JR Redmond to the opposite side to protect Brady’s blindside in care St Louis is feeling aggressive two plays in a row.

As Troy Brown gets vertical and cuts across the field, he manages to get underneath the deep-dropping Sam linebacker and behind the Will linebacker. By the time he gets to the opposite hash, he’s about 15 yards deep and that’s where Brady gets him the football.

This is what Weis was hoping for on the previous play before Brady was flushed out of the pocket and forced to throw the ball away.

For their part, St. Louis goes back to the exact same scheme on defense, Tampa 2 with the corners playing incredibly aggressive and the middle linebacker dropping to take away the gap between the two deep shell.

The deepest dig route by the Z receiver is taken away by the strong safety, the next deepest route is undercut by the Sam (The ‘Tampa’ player), leaving a giant hole in the middle of the St. Louis zone coverage.

That’s where Brown catches the ball, and after he’s forced out of bounds, the Patriots are just barely within Adam Vinatieri’s field goal range.

Play #6 - 1st and 10 / +36 / LH / 0:21 4Q

Leonard Little, the strong defensive end, plays man coverage away from the blitz because St. Louis wants to take away any quick, in-breaking route, a hot route, with another blitz coming. The idea is that he takes away the first guy who breaks inside, whether that’s the tight end Wiggins, or the next receiver out wider, Little isn’t being put in a spot where he needs to carry out a complicated coverage, since he’s already got the correct leverage, and with so much pressure coming, it’s likely that the football is going to come out quickly.

The tight end Jermaine Wiggins is lined up off the line of scrimmage while flexed out wide enough from the tackle box, and the play call by offensive coordinator Charlie Weis is designed to take advantage of exactly what St. Louis is thinking here.

The reality is that new England is just on the edge of Adam Vinatieri’s field goal range. At this spot, it would be a 53-yard field goal, with Vinatieri’s career long being 55 yards.

So is it impossible? No. Is it ideal? No.

The Patriots don’t need a big gain here, but they would like another five yards at least to get the hiding length under 50 yards. The problem is that New England has no timeouts left, so they’ll have to get the ball out quickly, and if it’s a throw tackled inbounds, they’ll need to get up to the line quickly to snap the ball and spike it to stop the clock and set up for a game-winning field goal.

That’s exactly what this play is designed to do.

With a pair of ‘snag’ routes by the two outside receivers to either side, and the shallow whip route by Wiggins, Brady is set up for an easy throw underneath to pick up some quick yardage and do exactly what we just talked about.

With the variation of the smash concept that New England is running, the corner route clears out the space in the alley underneath, and because of the amount of cushion the corner to that side is given, and the peculiar alignment of the linebackers and safety to the weak side of the formation, there aren’t really any defenders to get in the way underneath.

Conclusion

Wiggins makes the catch and picks up a gain of six yards up to the 30 yard line. Vinatieri comes onto the field for the kick, and the rest is history.

It's tempting to think of all that's happened since as pre-determined or magical, but the truth is even better. It was an extremely well-coached team who did their job better than the guy lined up across from them, and when their teammates needed them most, they responded spectacularly.