Power ranking Tom Brady’s 9 previous Super Bowl appearances

6. New York Giants 17, New England Patriots 14 (Super Bowl XLII)

In Week 17 at the Meadowlands, the then-15-0 New England Patriots rallied to beat the upstart New York Giants. Roughly a month later, Bill Belichick’s club owned an 18-0 record as these teams clashed in Arizona. Tom Brady was the league MVP that season via 50 touchdown passes and wide receiver Randy Moss joined him in the NFL record book at that time with 23 scoring grabs (the latter remains a record).

New York’s upset was made memorable by David Tyree’s amazing catch and Eli Manning’s effort to get the pass away. Meanwhile, Brady threw for only 266 yards and one score, lost a crucial fumble just before halftime and was sacked five times by Steve Spagnuolo’s defense.

5. New England Patriots 24, Philadelphia Eagles 21 (Super Bowl XXXIX)

You could make a case that the 2004 Patriots were Bill Belichick’s most complete team. The club finished 14-2 and avenged one of those losses by beating the 15-1 Steelers in the AFC title game at Pittsburgh. Tom Brady and company had to exercise some patience against a very talented Eagles’ team that scored first on Super Sunday at Jacksonville.

Wide receiver Deion Branch would catch 11 passes for 133 yards and was voted the game’s Most Valuable Player despite the fact that he didn’t score. Brady was sacked twice and did lose a fumble. But he also connected on 23-of-33 passes (69.7 percent) for 236 yards and short touchdown tosses to David Givens and Mike Vrabel.